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^HE-GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE LIBRARY 

Halsted VanderPoel Campanian Collection 










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O. PICKARD-CAMBRIDQE. 



LIFE OF CICEEO 

VOLUME I 



THE 



LIFE OF CICEKO 



BY 

ANTHONY TROLLOPS 



IN TWO VOLUMES 
VOL. I 



CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED, 193, PICCADILLY 
1880 

[All Eights Reserved.] 



LONDON : 

R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOE, 

BEEAD STEEET HILL. 



THE GETTY RESEARCH 
INSTITUTE LIBRARY, 



CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 



CHAPTER I. 

PACK 

INTRODUCTION 1 



CHAPTER II. 

CICKRO'S EDUCATION 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CONDITION OF ROME 68 



CHAPTER IV. 

His EARLY PLEADINGS, SEXTUS Roscius AMERINUS, His 

INCOME . ... 90 



CHAPTER V. 
CICERO AS QUAESTOR 123 



vi CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

VERRES . . 145 



CHAPTER VII. 
CICERO AS ^EDILE AND PR.ETOR . 192 



CHAPTER VIII. 
CICERO AS CONSUL 219 



CHAPTER IX. 
CATILINE 246 



CHAPTER X. 
CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP 289 



CHAPTER XI. 
THE TRIUMVIRATE 318 



CHAPTER XII. 

His EXILE . . 359 



CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. vii 



APPENDICES. 



PAGE 

405 



APPENDIX B 410 

APPENDIX C. 412 

APPENDIX D. . . . 414 

APPENDIX E. ; 417 



THE 

LIFE OF CICEEO. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

I AM conscious of a certain audacity in thus attempting to 
give a further life of Cicero which I feel I may probably fail 
in justifying by any new information ; and on this account 
the enterprise, though it has been long considered, has been 
postponed, so that it may be left for those who come after 
me to burn or publish as they may think proper ; or should 
it appear during my life I may have become callous through 
age to criticism. 

The project of my work was anterior to the life by Mr. 
Forsyth, and was first suggested to me as I was reviewing 
the earlier volumes of Dean Merivale's History of the Eomans 
under the Empire. In an article on the Dean's work, pre- 
pared for one of the magazines of the day, I inserted an 
apology for the character of Cicero which was found to be 

VOL. I. B 



2 LIFE OF CICERO. 

too long as ail episode, and was discarded by me, not without 
regret. From that time the subject has grown in my 
estimation till it has reached its present dimensions. 

I may say with truth that my book has sprung from love 
of the man, and from a heartfelt admiration of his virtues and 
his conduct as well as of his gifts. I must acknowledge that 
in discussing his character with men of letters, as I have been 
prone to do, I have found none quite to agree with me. His 
intellect they have admitted and his industry; but his 
patriotism they have doubted, his sincerity they have dis- 
puted, and his courage they have denied. It might have 
become me to have been silenced by their verdict, but I have 
rather been instigated to appeal to the public and to ask them 
to agree with me against my friends. It is not, only, that 
Cicero has touched all matters of interest to men and has given 
a new grace to all that he has touched, that as an orator, a 
rhetorician, an essayist, and a correspondent he was supreme, 
that as a statesman he was honest, as an advocate fearless, 
and as a governor pure, that he was a man whose intellec- 
tual part always dominated that of the body, that in taste he 
was excellent, in thought both correct and enterprising, and 
that in language he was perfect. All this has been already 
so said of him by other biographers. Plutarch, who is as 
familiar to us as though he had been English, and Middle- 
ton, who thoroughly loved his subject, and latterly Mr. 
Forsyth, who has struggled to be honest to him, might have 
sufficed as telling us so much as that But there was a 
humanity in Cicero, a something almost of Christianity, a 
stepping forward out of the dead intellectualities of Roman 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

life into moral perceptions, into natural affections, into 
domesticity, philanthropy and conscious discharge of duty, 
which do not seem to have been as yet fully appreciated. 
To have loved his neighbour as himself before the teaching 
of Christ was much for a man to achieve ; and that he did 
this is what I claim for Cicero and hope to bring home to the 
minds of those who can find time for reading yet another 
added to the constantly increasing volumes about Roman times. 

It has been the habit of some latter writers, who have left 
to Cicero his literary honours, to rob him of those which had 
been accorded to him as a politician. Macaulay, expressing 
his surprise at the fecundity of Cicero, and then passing on 
to the praise of the Philippics as senatorial speeches, says of 
him that he seems to have been at the head of the " minds of 
the second order." We cannot judge of the classification 
without knowing how many of the great men of the world 
are to be included in the first rank. But Macaulay probably- 
intended to express an opinion that Cicero was inferior be- 
cause he himself had never dominated others as Marius had 
done, and Sylla, and Pompey, and Caesar, and Augustus. But 
what if Cicero was ambitious for the good of others while 
these men had desired power only for themselves ! 

Dean Merivale says that Cicero was " discreet and de- 
corous," as with a similar sneer another clergyman, Sydney 
Smith, ridiculed a Tory prime minister because he was true 
to his wife. There is nothing so open to the bitterness of a 
little joke as those humble virtues by which no glitter can be 
gained but only the happiness of many preserved. And the' 
Dean declares that Cicero himself was not, except once or 

B 2 



4 LIFE OF CICERO. 

twice, and for a " moment only, a real power in the state." 
Men who usurped authority, such as those I have named, 
were the " real* powers," and it was in opposition to such 
usurpation that Cicero was always urgent. Mr. Forsyth who, as 
I have said, strives to be impartial, tells us that " the chief fault 
of Cicero's moral character was a want of sincerity." Absence 
of sincerity there was not. Deficiency of sincerity there 
was. Who among men has been free from such blame since 
history and the lives of men were first written? It will 
be my object to show that though less than godlike in that 
gift, by comparison with other men around him he was 
sincere; as he was also self-denying, which, if the two 
virtues be well examined, will indicate the same phase of 
character. 

But of all modern writers Mr. Froude has been the hardest 
to Cicero. His sketch of the life of Csesar is one prolonged 
censure on that of Cicero. Our historian, with all that glory 
of language for which he is so remarkable, has covered the 
poor orator with obloquy. There is no period in Cicero's 
life so touching, I think, as that during which he was hesi- 
tating whether, in the service of the .Republic, it did or did 
not behove him to join Pompey before the battle of Pharsalia. 
At this time he wrote to his friend Atticus various letters full 
of agonising doubts, as to what was demanded from him by 
his duty to his country, by his friendship for Pompey, by 
loyalty to his party, and by his own dignity. As to a passage 
in one of these Mr. Froude says " that Cicero had lately spoken 
of Caesar's continuance in life as a disgrace to the State." 
" It has been seen also that he had long thought of assas- 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

sination as the readiest means of ending it," l says Mr. Froude. 
The " It has been seen " refers to a statement made a few 
pages earlier, in which he translates certain words written by 
Cicero to Atticus. 2 " He considered it a disgrace to them 
that Csesar was alive." That is his translation ; and in his 
indignation he puts other words as it were into the mouth of 
his literary brother of two thousand years before. " Why did 
not somebody kill him ? " The Latin words themselves are 
added in a note, " Cum vivere ipsum turpe sit nobis." 3 Hot 
indignation has so carried the translator away that he has 
missed the very sense of Cicero's language. " When even to 
draw the breath of life at such a time is a disgrace to us ! " 
That is what Cicero meant. Mr. Froude in a preceding pas- 
sage gives us another passage from a letter to Atticus, 4 " Csesar 
was mortal. " 5 So much is an intended translation. Then 
Mr. Froude tells us how Cicero had " hailed Csesar' s eventual 
murder with rapture ;" and goes on to say; " We read the 
words with sorrow and yet with pity." But Cicero had never 
dreamed of Csesar's murder. The words of the passage are as 
follows ; " Hunc primum mortalern esse, deinde etiam multis 
modis extingui posse cogitabam." " I bethought myself in the 
first place that this man was mortal, and then that there were 
a hundred ways in which he might be put on one side." All 
the latter authorities have, I believe, supposed the " hunc " or 
" this man " to be Pompe'y. I should say that this was proved 
by the gist of the whole letter, one of the most interesting 

1 Froude's Ca?sar, p. 444. 2 Ibid. p. 428. 

3 Ad Att. lib. xiii. 28. 

4 Ad Att. ix. 10. s Froude, p. 365. 



6 LIFE OF CICERO. 

that was ever written, as telling the workings of a great man's 
mind at a peculiar crisis of his life, did I not know that 
former learned editors have supposed Caesar to have been 
meant. But whether Caesar or Pompey, there is nothing in it 
to do with murder. It is a question, Cicero is saying to his 
friend, of the stability of the Eepublic. When a matter so 
great is considered, how is a man to trouble himself as to 
an individual who may die any day, or cease from any 
accident to be of weight? Cicero was speaking of the 
effect of this or that step on his own part. Am I, he 
says, for the sake of Pompey to bring down hordes of bar- 
barians on my own country, sacrificing the Eepublic for the 
sake of a friend who is here to-day and may be gone to- 
morrow ? Or for the sake of an enemy, if the reader thinks 
that the " hunc " refers to Csesar. The argument is the same. 
Am I to consider an individual when the Eepublic is at stake ? 
Mr. Froude tells us that he reads " the words with sorrow and 
yet with pity." So would every one, I think, sympathising 
with the patriot's doubts as to his leader, and to his party, and 
as to his country. Mr. Froude does so because he gathers 
from them that Cicero is premeditating the murder of Caesar ! 

It is natural that a man should be judged out of his own 
mouth. A man who speaks much and so speaks that his 
words shall be listened to and read, will be so judged. But 
it is not too much to demand that 'when a man's character 
is at stake his own words shall be thoroughly sifted before 
they are used against him. 

The writer of the biographical notice in the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica on Cicero, sends down to posterity a statement 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

that in the time of the first triumvirate, when our hero was 
withstanding the machinations of Caesar and Pompey against / 
the liberties of Eome, he was open to be bought. The augur- 
ship would have bought him. " So pitiful," says the bio- 
grapher, " was the bribe to which he would have sacrificed 
his honour, his opinions, and the commonwealth ! " With no 
more sententious language was the character of a great man 
ever offered up to public scorn. And on what evidence ? 
"We should have known nothing of the bribe and the cor- 
ruption but for a few playful words in a letter from Cicero 
himself to Atticus. He is writing from one of his villas to 
his friend in Eome and asks for the news of the day. Who 
are to be the new consuls ? Who is to have the vacant augur- 
ship ? Ah, says he, they might have caught even me with K 
that bait ; l as he said on another occasion that he was so 
much in debt as to be fit for a rebel ; and again, as I shall 
have to explain just now, that he was like to be called in 
question under the Cincian law because of a present of books ! 
This was just at the point of his life when he was declining all 
offers of public service, of public service for which his soul 
longed, because they were made to him by Caesar. It was 
then that the " Vigintiviratus " was refused which Quintillian 
mentions to his honour. It was then that he refused to be 
Caesar's lieutenant. It was then that he might have been 
fourth with Caesar, and Pompey, and Crassus, had he not 
felt himself bound not to serve against the Eepublic. And 
yet the biographer does not hesitate to load him with infamy 

S 

1 Ad Att. lib. ii. 5, " Quo quidem uno ego ab istis capi possum." 



8 LIFE OF CICERO. 

because of a playful word in a letter half jocose and half 
pathetic to his friend. If a man's deeds be always honest, , 
surely he should not be accused of dishonesty on the strength 
of some light word spoken in the confidence of familiar in- 
tercourse. The light words are taken to be grave because 
they meet the modern critic's eye clothed in the majesty of 
a dead language ; and thus it comes to pass that their very 
meaning is misunderstood. 

My friend Mr. Collins speaks in his charming little volume 
on Cicero, of " quiet evasions " of the Cincian law, 1 and tells 
us that we are taught by Cicero's letters not to trust Cicero's 
words when he was in a boasting vein. What has the one 
thing to do with the other ? He names no quiet evasions. Mr. 
Collins makes a surmise, by which the character of Cicero for 
honesty is impugned without evidence. The anonymous 
biographer altogether misinterprets Cicero. Mr. Froude 
charges Cicero with anticipation of murder, grounding his 
charge on words which he has not taken the trouble to under- 
stand. Cicero is accused on the strength of his own private 
letters. It is because we have not the private letters of other ' 
persons that they are not so accused. The courtesies of the 

1 The Cincian law, of which I shall have to speak again, forbade Roman 
advocates to take any payment for their services. Cicero expressly declares 
that he has always obeyed that law. He accused others of disobeying it, 
as, for instance, Hortensius. But no contemporary has accused him. Mr. 
Collins refers to some books which had been given to Cicero by his friend 
Pojtus. They are mentioned in a letter to Atticus, lib. i. 20 ; and Cicero, 
joking, says that he has consulted Cincius, perhaps some descendant of him 
who made the law 145 years before, as to the legality of accepting the 
present. But we have no reason for supposing that he had ever acted as an 
advocate for Pojtus. 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

world exact, I will not say demand, certain deviations from 
straightforward expression ; and these are made most often in 
private conversations and in private correspondence. Cicero 
complies with the ways of the world ; but his epistles are no 
longer private, and he is therefore subjected to charges of 
falsehood. It is because Cicero's letters, written altogether 
for privacy, have been found worthy to be made public that 
such accusations have been made. When the injustice of 
these critics strikes me, I almost wish that Cicero's letters 
had not been preserved. 

As I have referred to the evidence of those who have, in 
these latter days, spoken against Cicero, I will endeavour to 
place before the reader the testimony of his character which 
was given by writers, chiefly of his own nation, who dealt 
with his name for the hundred and fifty years after his 
death, from the time of Augustus down to that of Adrian, 
a period much given to literature, in which the name of a 
politician and a man of literature would assuredly be much 
discussed. Eeaders will see in what language he was spoken 
of by those who came after him. I trust they will believe 
that if I knew of testimony on the other side, of records 
adverse to the man, I would give them. The first passage, 
to which I will allude does not bear Cicero's name ; and it 
may be that I am wrong in assuming honour to Cicero from 
a passage in poetry, itself so famous, in which no direct 
allusion is made to himself. But the idea that Virgil in the 
following lines refers to the manner in which Cicero soothed 
the multitude who rose to destroy the theatre when the 
knights took their front seats in accordance with Otho's law, 



10 LIFE OF CICERO. 

does not originate with me. I give the lines as translated 
by Dryden, with the original in a note. 1 

" As when in tumults rise the ignoble crowd, 
Mad are their motions, and their tongues are loud ; 
And stones and brands in rattling volleys fly, 
And all the rustic arms that fury can supply ; 
If then some grave and pious man appear, 
They hush their noise, and lend a listening ear ; 
He soothes with sober words their angry mood, 
And quenches their innate desire of blood." 

This, if it be not intended for a portrait of Cicero on that 
occasion, exactly describes his position and his success. We 
have a fragment of Cornelius Nepos, the biographer of the 
Augustan age, declaring that at Cicero's death men had to 
doubt whether literature or the Eepublic had lost the most. 2 
Livy declared of him only, that he would be the best writer of 
Latin prose who was most like to Cicero. 3 Velleius Pater- 
culus, who wrote in the time of Tiberius, speaks of Cicero's 
achievements with the highest honour. " At this period," he 
says, "lived Marcus Cicero, who owed everything to himself, 
a man of altogether a new family, as distinguished for ability 
as he was for the purity of his life." 4 Valerius Maximus 

1 Virgil, ^Eneid, i. 150 

" Ac, veluti magno in populo quum saepe coorta est 
Seditio, ssevitque auimis ignobile vulgus ; 
Jamque faces, et saxa volant ; furor arma ministrat : 
Turn, pietate gravem ac mentis si forte virum quem 
Conspexere, silent, arrectisque auribtis adstant ; 
Iste regit dictis animos, et pectora inulcet." 

2 The author is saying that a history from Cicero would have been invaluable, 
and the words are "iuterituejusutrum respublica an historia inagis doleat." 

8 Quintillian tells us this, lib. ii c. 5. The passage of Livy is not extant, 
The commentators suppose it to have been taken from a letter to his son. 
4 Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii. c. 84. 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

quotes him as an example of a forgiving character. 1 Perhaps 
the warmest praise ever given to him came from the pen of 
Pliny the Elder, from whose address to the memory of Cicero 
I will quote only a few words, as I shall refer to it more at 
length when speaking of his consulship. " Hail thou, " says 
Pliny, " who first among men was called the father of your 
country." 2 Martial, in one of his distichs, tells the traveller 
that if he have but a book of Cicero's writing he may fancy 
that he is travelling with Cicero himself. 3 Lucan, in his 
bombastic verse, declares how Cicero dared to speak of peace 
in the camp of Pharsalia. The reader may think that Cicero 
should have said nothing of the kind, but Lucan mentions 
him with all honour. 4 Not Tacitus, as I think, but some 
author whose essay De Oratoribus was written about the time 
of Tacitus, and whose work has come to us with the name 
of Tacitus, has told us of Cicero that he was a master of 
logic, of ethics, and of physical science. 5 Everybody 
remembers the passage in Juvenal, 

" Sed Roma parentem 
Roma patrem^patriae Ciceroncm libera dixit." 

" Ptome, even when she was free, declared him to be the 



1 Valerius Maximus, lib. iv. c. 2 ; 4. 

a Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. vii. xxxi. 30. 3 Martial, lib. xiv. 188. 

4 Lucan, lib. vii. 62 

" Cunctorum voces Romani maximus auctor 
Tullius eloquii, cujus sub jure togaque 
Pacificas saevus tfemuit Catilina secures, 
Pertulit, iratus bellis, cum rostra forumque 
Optaret passus tarn longa silentia miles. 
Addidit invalidse robur facundia causss." 

5 Tacitus, De Oratoribus, xxx. 



12 LIFE OF CICERO. 

father of his country/' 1 Even Plutarch, who generally 
seems to have a touch of jealousy when speaking of Cicero, 
declares that he verified the prediction of Plato ; " That 
every State would be delivered from its calamities whenever 
power should fortunately unite with wisdom and justice in 
one person." 2 The praises of Quintillian as to the man are 
so mixed with the admiration of the critic for the hero of 
letters, that I would have omitted to mention them here 
were it not that they will help to declare what was the 
general opinion as to Cicero at the time in which it was 
written. He has been speaking of Demosthenes, 3 and then 
goes on ; " Nor in regard to Cicero do I see that he ever 
failed in the duty of a good citizen. There is in evidence of 
this, the splendour of his consulship, the rare integrity of his 
provincial administration, his refusal of office under Cesar, 4 
the firmness of his mind on the civil wars, giving way neither 
to hope nor fear, though these sorrows came heavily on 
him in his old age. On all these occasions he did the 
best he could for the Eepublic." Floras, who wrote after 
the twelve Csesars, in the time of Trajan and of Adrian, 
whose rapid summary of P^oman events can hardly be called 
a history, tells us, in a few words, how Catiline's conspiracy 
was crushed by the authority of Cicero and Cato in 
opposition to that of Caesar. 5 Then, when he has passed in a 

1 Juvenal, viii. 243. 2 Demosthenes and Cicero compared. 

3 Quintillian, xii. 1. 

4 "Repudiatus vigintiviratus. " He refused a position of official value 
rendered vacant by the death of one Cosconius. See Letters to Atticus, 2, 19. 

6 Florus, lib. iv. 1. In a letter from Essex to Foulke Greville, the writing 
of which has been attributed to Bacon by Mr. Spedding, Florus is said simply 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

few short chapters over all the intervening history of the 
Eoman empire, he relates, in pathetic words, the death of Cicero. 
" It was the custom in Eome to put up on the rostra the 
heads of those who had been slain. But now the city 
was not able to restrain its tears when the head of Cicero 
was seen there upon the spot from which the citizens had so 
often listened to his words." 1 Such is the testimony given 
to this man by the writers who may be supposed to have 
known most of him as having been nearest to his time. 
They all wrote after him. Sallust, who was certainly his 
enemy, wrote of him in his lifetime, but never wrote in his 
dispraise. It is evident that public opinion forbade him to 
do so. Sallust is never warm in Cicero's praise as were 
those subsequent authors whose words I have quoted, and 
has been made subject to reproach for envy, for having 
passed too lightly over Cicero's doings and words in his 
account of Catiline's conspiracy ; but what he did say was to 
Cicero's credit. Men had heard of the danger, and therefore, 
says Sallust, 2 " They conceived the idea of entrusting the 
consulship to Cicero. For before that the nobles were 
envious, and thought that the consulship would be polluted 
if it were conferred on a novus homo, however distinguished. 
But when danger came envy and pride had to give way." 
He afterwards declares that Cicero made a speech against 
Catiline most brilliant, and at the same time useful to the 
Eepublic. This was lukewarm praise ; but coming from 

to have epitomised Livy (Life, vol. ii. p. 23.) In this, I think, that Bacon has 
shorn him of his honours. 

1 Floras, lib. iv. 6. 2 Sallust, Catiliuaria, xxiii. 



14 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Sallust, who would have censured if he could, it is as 
eloquent as any eulogy. There is extant a passage attri- 
buted to Sallust, full of virulent abuse of Cicero, but no one 
now imagines that Sallust wrote it. It is called the Decla- 
mation of Sallust against Cicero, and bears intrinsic evidence 
that it was written in after years. It suited some one to 
forge pretended invectives between Sallust and Cicero, and 
is chiefly noteworthy here because it gives to Dio Cassius 
a foundation for the hardest of hard words he said against 
the orator. 1 

Dio Cassius was a Greek who wrote in the reign of Alex- 
ander Severus, more than two centuries and a half after the 
death of Cicero, and he no doubt speaks evil enough of our 
hero. What was the special cause of jealousy on his part 
cannot probably be now known, but the nature of his hatred 
may be gathered from the passage in the note, which is so 
foul-mouthed that it can be only inserted under the veil of 
his own language. 2 Among other absurdities Dio Cassius says 



1 I will add the concluding passage from the pseudo-declamation in order 
that the reader may see the nature of the words which were put into 
Sallust's mouth ; 

" Quos tyrannos appellabas, eorum nunc potentiae faves-; qui tibi ante 
optumates videbantiir, eosdem nunc dementes ac furiosos vocas ; Vatinii 
caussam agis, de Sextio male existumas ; Bibulum petulantissumis verbis 
loedis, laudas Caesarem ; quern maxume odisti, ei maxume obsequeris. Aliud 
stans, aliud sedens, de republica sentis ; his maledicis, illos odisti ; levissume 
transfuga, neque in hac, neque ilia parte fidem habes." Hence Dio Cassius de- 
clared that Cicero had been called a turncoat, "Kal avrtpaXos wop-Afaro." 

8 Dio Cassius, lib. xlvi. 18 

" irpbs $jc Kal aunjy -roiavras eirlaro\asypa<pels o'lat &r ypdtyeifv af-fip oitcairT&\T]s 
aOupuy\(0ppot . . . Kal irpofftrt Kal 7-bffr6/jLa. avrov SiajSaA.AEic eVe^e/p^ire ruffavrrj 
iifff\ytia. /col uKaQaprrla irapd iravra. rbc fitbv ^p^fjifvos &ffre /ttTjSe rSiiv ffvyyfveff- 
i, d\\a ri}v re yvvcuxa. irpoa.y<ay(vtiv Kal rty 6vya-rtpa.fj.oixf vfif." 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

of Cicero, that in his latter days he put away a gay young 
wife, forty years younger than himself, in order that he 
might enjoy, without disturbance, the company of another 
lady who was nearly as much older than himself as his wife 
was younger ! 

Now I ask, having brought forward so strong a testimony, 
not, I will say, as to the character of the man, but of the 
estimation in which he was held by those who came shortly 
after him in his own country; having shown, as I profess 
that I have shown, that his name was always treated with 
singular dignity and respect not only by the lovers of the 
old Republic but by the minions of the Empire ; having found 
that no charge was ever made against him either for insin- 
cerity or cowardice or dishonesty by those who dealt com- 
monly with his name, am I not justified in saying that they 
who have in later days accused him should have shown their 
authority ? Their authority they have always found in his 
own words. It is on his own evidence against himself that 
they have depended ; on his own evidence, or occasionally 
on their own surmises. When we are told of his cowardice, 
because those human vacillations of his, humane as 
well as human, have been laid bare to us as they came 
quivering out of his bosom on to his fingers ! He is a coward 
to the critics because they have written without giving them- 
selves time to feel the true meaning of his own words. If 
we had only known his acts and not his words, how he o^ s 
stood up against the judges at the trial of Verres, with what 
courage he encountered the responsibility of his doings at 
the time of Catiline, how he joined Pompey in Macedonia 



16 LIFE OF CICERO. 

from a sense of sheer duty, how he defied Antony when to 
defy Antony was probable death, then we should not call 
him a coward ! It is out of his own mouth that he is con- 
demned. Then surely his words should be understood ! 
Queen Christina says of him, in one of her maxims, that 
" Cicero was the only coward that was capable of great 
actions." The Queen of Sweden, whose sentences are never 
worth very much, has known her history well enough to have 
learned that Cicero's acts were noble, but has not understood 
the meaning of words sufficiently to extract from Cicero's 
own expressions their true bearing. The bravest of us all 
if he is in high place, has to doubt much, before he can know 
what true courage will demand of him ; and these doubts 
the man of words will express, if there be given to him an 
alter ego such as Cicero had in Atticus. 

In reference to the biography of Mr. Forsyth I must 
in justice both to him and to Cicero, quote one passage 
from the work ; " Let those who like De Quincey, 1 
Mommsen, and others, speak disparagingly of Cicero, and 
are so lavish in praise of Caesar, recollect that Caesar 
never was troubled by a conscience." Here it is that 
we find that advance almost to Christianity of which I 
have spoken, and that superiority of inward being which 
makes Cicero the most fit to be loved of all the Komans. 

1 As it happens De Quincey specially calls Cicero a man of conscience. 
" Cicero is one of the very few Pagan statesmen who can be described as a 
thoroughly conscientious man," he says. The purport of his illogical essay 
on Cicero is no doubt thoroughly hostile to the man. It is chiefly worth 
reading on account of the amusing virulence with which Middleton, the 
biographer, is attacked. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

It is hard for a man, even in regard to his own private 
purposes, to analyse the meaning of a conscience, if he put 
out of question all belief in a future life. Why should a 
man do right if it be not for a reward here or hereafter ? 
Why should anything be right or wrong ? The Stoics tried 
to get over the difficulty by declaring that if a man could 
conquer all his personal desires he would become, by doing 
so, happy, and would therefore have achieved the only end 
at which a man can rationally aim. The school had many 
scholars, but probably never a believer. The normal Greek 
or Eoman might be deterred by the law, which means 
fear of punishment, or by the opinion of his neighbours, 
which means ignominy. He might recognise the fact, that 
comfort would combine itself with innocence, or disease 
and want with lust and greed. In this there was little 
need of a conscience ; hardly perhaps room for it. But 
when ambition came, with all the opportunities that chance, 
audacity, and intellect would give, as it did to Sylla to 
Caesar and to Augustus, then there was nothing to restrain 
the men. There was to such a man no right but his power^ 
no wrong but opposition to it. His cruelty or his clemency 
might be more or less as his conviction of the utility of 
this or that other weapon for dominating men might be strong 
with him. Or there might be some variation in the flowing 
of the blood about his heart which might make a massacre 
of citizens a pleasing diversion or a painful process to him. 
But there was no conscience. With the man of whom 
we are about to speak conscience was strong. In his some- 
times doubtful wanderings after political wisdom, in those 

VOL. i. c 



13 LIFE OF CICERO. 

mental mazes -which have been called insincerity, we shall 
see him, if we look well into his doings, struggling to find 
whether in searching for what was his duty he should go to 
this side or tothat. Might he best hope a return to that state 
of things which he thought good for his country by adhering 
to Csesar or to Pompey ? We see the workings of his con- 
science, and, as we remember that Scipio's dream of his, we 
feel sure that he had, in truth within him, a recognition of a 
future life. 

In discussing the character of a man, there is no course 
of error so fertile as the drawing of a hard and fast line. 
We are attracted by salient points and seeing them clearly 
we jump to conclusions, as though there were a lighthouse 
on every point by which the nature of the coast would 
certainly be shown to us. And so it will, if we accept the 
light only for so much of thB shore as it illumines. But to 
say that a man is insincere because he has vacillated in this 
or the other difficulty, that he is a coward because he has 
feared certain dangers, that he is dishonest because he has 
swerved, that he is a liar because an untrue word has been 
traced to him, is to suppose that you know all the coast 
because one jutting headland has been defined to you. He 
who so expresses himself on a man's character is either 
ignorant of human nature, or is in search of stones with 
which to pelt his enemy. " He has lied ! He has lied ! " 
How often in our own political contests do we hear the cry 
with a note of triumph ! And if he have, how often has 
he told the truth ? And if he have, how many are entitled 
by pure innocence in that matter to throw a stone at him ? 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

And if he have do we not know how lies will come to the 
tongue of a man without thought of lying ? In his stoutest 
efforts after the truth a man may so express himself that 
when afterwards he is driven to compare his recent and his 
former words, he shall hardly be able to say even to himself 
that he has not lied. It is by the tenor of a man's whole 
life that we must judge him, whether he be a liar or no. 

To expect a man to be the same at sixty as he was at 
thirty, is to suppose that the sun at noon shall be graced with 
the colours which adorn its setting. And there are men whose 
intellects are set on so fine a pivot that a variation in the 
breeze of the moment, which coarser minds shall not feel, 
will carry them round with a rapidity which baffles the 
common eye. The man who saw his duty clearly on this 
side in the morning shall, before the evening come, recognise 
it on the other ; and then again, and again, and yet again the 
vane shall go round. It may be that an instrument shall be 
too fine for our daily uses. We do not want a clock to 
strike the minutes, or a glass to tell the momentary changes 
in the atmosphere. It may be found that for the work of 
the world, the .coarse work, and no work is so coarse, 
though none is so important, as that which falls com- 
monly into the hands of statesmen, instruments strong in 
texture, and by reason of their rudeness not liable to sudden 
impressions, may be the best. That it is which we mean when 
we declare that a scrupulous man is impractical in politics. 
But the same man may, at various periods of his life, and 
on various days at the same period, be scrupulous and un- 
scrupulous, impractical and practical, as the circumstances 

c 2 



20 LIFE OF CICERO. 

of the occasion may affect him. At one moment the rule 
of simple honesty will prevail with him. "Fiat justitia, 
mat ccelum." " Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient 
ruinse." At another he will see the necessity of a compromise 
for the good of the many. He will tell himself that if the 
best cannot be done, he must content himself with the 
next best. He must shake hands with the imperfect, as the 
best way of lifting himself up from a bad way towards a 
better. In obedience to his very conscience he will tem- 
porise, and, finding no other way of achieving good, will 
do even evil that good may come of it. "Eem si possis 
recte ; si non, quocunque modo rem." In judging of such 
a character as this a hard and fast line will certainly lead 
us astray. In judging of Cicero such a hard and fast line 
has too generally been used. He was a man singularly 
sensitive to all influences. It must be admitted that he 
was a vane, turning on a pivot finer than those on which 
statesmen have generally been made to work. He had 
none of the fixed purpose of Csesar, or the unflinching 
principle of Cato. They were men cased in brass, whose 
feelings nothing could hurt. They suffered from none of 
those inward flutterings of the heart, doubtful aspirations, 
human longings, sharp sympathies, dreams of something 
better than this world, fears of something worse, which make 
Cicero so like a well-bred polished gentleman of the present 
day. It is because he was so little like a Eoman that he 
is of all the Eomans the most attractive. 

Still there may be doubt whether with all the intricacies 
of his character his career was such as to justify a further 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

biography at this distance of time. "What's Hecuba to 
him or he to Hecuba ? " asks Hamlet, when he finds himself 
stirred by the passion thrown into the bare recital of an old 
story by an itinerant player. What is Cicero to us of the 
nineteenth century that we should care so much for him as to 
read yet another book ? Nevertheless Hamlet was moved 
because the tale was well told. There is matter in the 
earnestness, the pleasantness, the patriotism, and the tragedy 
of the man's life to move a reader still, if the story could 
only be written of him as it is felt ! The difficulty lies in 
that and not in the nature of the story. 

The period of Cicero's life was the very turning-point of 
civilisation and government in the history of the world. At 
that period of time the world, as we know it, was Eome. 
Greece had sunk. The Macedonian Empire had been de- 
stroyed. The kingdoms of the East whether conquered, or 
even when conquering as was Parthia for a while, were 
barbaric, outside the circle of cultivation, and to be brought 
into it only by the arms and influence of Eome. During 
Caesar's career Gaul was conquered ; and Britain, with what 
was known of Germany, supposed to be partly conquered. 
The subjugation of Africa and Spain was all but completed. 
Letters too had been, or were being, introduced. Cicero's 
use of language was so perfect that it seems to us to have 
been almost necessarily the result of a long established art 
of Latin literature. But in truth he is the earliest of the 
prose writers of his country with whose works we are 
familiar. Excepting Varro, who was born but ten years 
before him, no earlier Latin prose writer has left more than 



22 LIFE OF CICERO. 

a name to us ; and the one work by which Varro is at all 
known, the De Ee Eustica, was written after Cicero's death. 
Lucretius, whose language we regard as almost archaic, so 
unlike is it to that of Virgil or Horace, was born eight 
years after Cicero. In a great degree Cicero formed the 
Latin language, or produced that manipulation of it which 
has made it so graceful in prose, and so powerful a vehicle 
of thought. That which he took from any Latin writer he 
took from Terence. 

And it was then, just then, that there arose in Eome that 
unpremeditated change in its form of government which 
resulted in the self-assumed dictatorship of Caesar, and the 
usurpation of the Empire by Augustus. The old Eome had 
had kings. Then the name and the power became odious ; 
the name to all the citizens no doubt, but the power simply 
to the nobility who grudged the supremacy of one man. The 
kings were abolished, and an oligarchy was established under 
the name of a Eepublic, with its annual magistrates, at 
first its two Consuls, then its Praetors and others, and occa- 
sionally a Dictator as some current event demanded a con- 
centration of temporary power in a single hand for a certain 
purpose. The Eepublic was no Eepublic as we understand 
the word. Nor did it ever become so, though there was 
always going on a perpetual struggle to transfer the power 
from the nobles to the people in which something was 
always being given or pretended to be given to the outside 
class. But so little was as yet understood of liberty that 
as each plebeian made his way up into high place and became 
one of the magistrates of the State, he became also one of 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

the oligarchical faction. There was a continued contest, with 
a certain amount of good faith on each side, on behalf of the 
so-called Eepublic, but still a contest for power. This 
became so continued that a foreign war was at times regarded 
as a blessing because it concentrated the energies of the State, 
which had been split and used by the two sections by each 
against the other. It is probably the case that the invasion of 
the Gauls in earlier days, and, later on, the second Punic war, 
threatening as they were in their incidents to the power of 
Rome, provided the Eepublic with that vitality which kept it 
so long in existence. Then came Marius dominant on one 
side as a tribune of the people, and Sylla as aristocrat on the 
other, and the civil wars between them in which, as one pre- 
vailed or the other, Eome was massacred. How Marius died, 
and Sylla reigned for three bloody fatal years, is outside the 
scope of our purpose, except in this that Cicero saw Sylla's 
proscriptions and made his first essay into public life hot 
with anger at the Dictator's tyranny. 

It occurs to us as we read the history of Eome, beginning 
with the early Consuls and going to the death of Caesar and 
of Cicero and the accomplished despotism of Augustus, 
that the Eepublic could not have been saved by any efforts, 
and was in truth not worth the saving. We are apt to think, 
judging from our own idea of liberty, thajt there was so 
much of tyranny, so little of real freedom in the Eoman form 
of government, that it was not good enough to deserve our 
sympathies. But it had been successful. It had made a 
great people and had produced a wide-spread civilisation. 
Eoman citizenship was to those outside the one thing the 



24 LIFE OF CICERO. 

most worthy to be obtained. That career which led the 
great Romans up from the state of Quaestor, to the ^diles, 
Praetor's, and Consul's chair, and thence to the rich reward 
of provincial government, was held to be the highest then 
open to the ambition of man. The Kings of Greece, and of 
the East, and of Africa were supposed to be inferior in their 
very rank to a Eoman Proconsul, and this greatness was 
carried on with a semblance of liberty, and was compatible 
with a belief in the majesty of the Roman citizen. When 
Cicero began his work, Consuls, Praetors, ^Ediles and Quaes- 
tors, were still chosen by the votes of the citizens. There 
was bribery, no doubt, and intimidation, and a resort to those 
dirty arts of canvassing with which we English have been 
so familiar; but in Cicero's time the male free inhabitants 
of Eome did generally carry the candidates to whom 
they attached themselves. The salt of their republican 
theory was not as yet altogether washed out from their 
practice. 

The love of absolute Liberty as it has been cultivated 
among modern races did not exist in the time of Cicero. 
The idea never seems to have reached even his bosom, human 
and humanitarian as were his sympathies, that a man, as 
man, should be free. Half the inhabitants of Rome were 
slaves, and the institution was so grafted in the life of the 
time that it never occurred to a Roman, that slaves as. a body, 
should be manumitted. The slaves themselves, though they 
were not, as have been the slaves whom we have seen, of a 
different colour and presumed inferior race, do not themselves 
seem to have entertained any such idea. They were instigated 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

now and again to servile wars, but there was no rising in 
quest of freedom generally. Nor was it repugnant to the 
Eoman theory of liberty that the people whom they domi- 
nated, though not subjected to slavery, should still be outside 
the pale of civil freedom. That boon was to be reserved for 
the Eoman citizen, and for him only. It had become common 
to admit to citizenship, the inhabitants of other towns and 
further territories. The glory was kept not altogether for 
Borne, but for Eomans. 

Thus, though the government was oligarchical, and the very 
essence of freedom ' ignored, there was a something which 
stood in the name of Liberty, and could endear itself to a real 
patriot. With genuine patriotism Cicero loved his country, 
and beginning his public life as he did at the close of Sylla's 
tyranny, he was able to entertain a dream that the old state 
of things might be restored and the republican form of 
government maintained. There should still be two Consuls 
in Eome whose annual election would guard the State against 
regal dominion. And there should, at the same time, be such 
a continuance of power in the hands of the better class, the 
"optimates" as he called them, as would preserve the city 
from democracy and revolution. Np_ man ever trusted more 
entirely to popular opinion than Cicero, or was more anxious 
for aristocratic authority. But neither in one direction nor 
the other did he look for personal aggrandisement, beyond 
that which might come to him in accordance with the law 
and in subjection to the old form of government. 

It is because he was in truth patriotic, because his dreams 
of a Eepublic were noble dreams, because he was intent on 



26 LIFE OF CICERO. 

doing good in public affairs, because he was anxious for the 
honour of Rome and of Eomans, not because he was or was 
not a " real power in the State," that his memory is still worth 
recording. Added to this was the intellect and the wit and 
erudition of the man which were at any rate supreme. 
And then though we can now see that his efforts were 
doomed to failure by the nature of the circumstances surround- 
ing him, he was so nearly successful, so often on the verge of 
success, that we are exalted by the romance of his story into 
the region of personal sympathy. As we are moved by the 
aspirations and sufferings of a hero in a tragedy, so are we 
stirred by the efforts, the fortune, and at last the fall of this 
man. There is a picturesqueness about the life of Cicero 
which is wanting in the stories of Marius or Sylla, of 
Pompey or even of Caesar, a picturesqueness which is 
produced in great part by these very doubtings which have 
been counted against him as insincerity. 

His hands were clean when the hands of all around him 
were defiled by greed. How infinitely Cicero must have 
risen above his time when he could have clean hands ! A 
man in our days will keep himself clean from leprosy 
because to be a leper is to be despised by those around him. 
Advancing wisdom has taught us that such leprosy is bad, 
and public opinion coerces us. There is something too, we 
must suppose, in the lessons of Christianity. Or it may be 
that the man of our day, with all these advantages does not 
keep himself clean, that so many go astray that public 
opinion shall almost seem to tremble in the balance. Even 
with us this and that abomination becomes allowable because 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

so many do it. With the Komans, in the time of Cicero, 
greed, feeding itself on usury, rapine and dishonesty, was so 
fully the recognised condition of life that its indulgence 
entailed no disgrace. But Cicero, with eyes within him 
which saw further than the eyes of other men, perceived 
the baseness of the stain. It has been said also of him 
that he was not altogether free from reproach. It has been 
suggested that he accepted payment for his services as an 
advocate, any such payment being illegal. The accusation 
is founded on the knowledge that other advocates allowed 
themselves to be "paid and on the belief that Cicero could not 
have lived as he did without an income from that source. 
And then there is a story told of him that though he did 
much at a certain period of his life to repress the usury, 
and to excite at the same time the enmity of a powerful 
friend, he might have done more. As we go on the stories 
of these things will be told; but the very nature of the 
allegations against him prove how high he soared in honesty 
above the manners of his day. In discussing the character 
of the men, little is thought of the robberies of Sylla, the 
borrowings of Caesar, the money-lending of Brutus, or the 
accumulated wealth of Crassus. To plunder a province, to 
drive usury to the verge of personal slavery, to accept bribes 
for perjured judgment, to take illegal fees for services sup- 
posed to be gratuitous, was so much the custom of the noble 
Eomans that we hardly hate his dishonest greed when dis- 
played in its ordinary course. But because Cicero's honesty 
was abnormal, we are first surprised, and then, suspecting 
little deviations, rise up in wrath against him, because in the 



28 LIFE OF CICERO. 

midst of Eoman profligacy he was not altogether a puritan 
in his money matters. 

Cicero is known to us in three great capacities, as a 
statesman, an advocate, and a man of letters. As the 
combination of such pursuits is common in our own days, 
so also was it in his. Caesar added them all to the great 
work of his life as a soldier. But it was given to Cicero, to 
take a part in all those political struggles, from the resigna- 
tion of Sylla to the first rising of the young Octavius, which 
were made on behalf of the Eepublic and were ended by 
its downfall. His political life contains the story of the 
conversion of Rome from republican to imperial rule ; and 
Eome was then the world. Could there have been no 
Augustus, no Nero, and then no Trajan, all Europe would 
have been different. Cicero's efforts were put forth to 
prevent the coming of an Augustus or a Nero, or the 
need of a Trajan; and as we read of them we feel that 
had success been possible he would have succeeded. 

As an advocate he was unsurpassed. From him came the 
i'eeling, whether it be right or wrong, that a lawyer, in 
pleading for his client, should give to that client's cause not 
only all his learning and all his wit, but also all his sym- 
pathy. To me it is marvellous, and interesting rather than 
beautiful, to see how completely Cicero can put off his own 
identity and assume another's, in any cause, whatever it be, 
of which he has taken the charge. It must however be borne 
in mind that in old Rome the distinction between speeches 
made in political and in civil or criminal cases was not 
equally well marked as with us, and also that the reader 



INTRODUCTION. 29 



having the speeches which have come down to us whether of 
one nature or the other, presented to him in the same volume, 
is apt to confuse the public and that which may perhaps be 
called the private work of the man. In the speeches best 
known to us Cicero was working as a public man for public 
objects, and the ardour, I may say the fury, of his energy in 
the cause which he was advocating was due to his public 
aspirations. The orations which have come to us in three 
sets, some of them published only but never spoken, those 
against Verres, against Catiline, and the Philippics against 
Antony, were all of this nature, though the first concerned 
the conduct of a criminal charge against one individual. 
Of these I will speak in their turn; but I mention them 
here in order that I may, if possible, induce the reader to 
begin his inquiry into Cicero's character as an advocate with 
a just conception of the objects of the man. He wished, no 
doubt, to shine as does the barrister of to-day ; he wished to 
rise ; he wished if you will to make his fortune, not by the 
taking of fees but by extending himself into higher influence 
by the authority of his name. No doubt he undertook this 
and the other case without reference to the truth or honesty 
of the cause, and when he did so, used all his energy for the 
bad, as he did for the good cause. There seems to be special 
accusation made against him on this head, as though the very 
fact that he undertook his work without pay, threw upon him 
the additional obligation of undertaking no cause that was 
not in itself upright. With us the advocate does this, 
notoriously for his fee. Cicero did it, as notoriously, in 
furtherance of some political object of the moment or in 



30 LIFE OF CICERO. 



maintenance of a friendship which was politically important. 
I say nothing against the modern practice. This would not 
be the place for such an argument. Nor do I say that, by 
rules of absolute right and wrong, Cicero was right. But he 
was as right at any rate as the modern barrister. And in 
reaching the high-minded conditions under which he worked, 
he had only the light of his own genius to guide him. When 
we compare the clothing of the savage race with our own, 
their beads and woad and straw and fibres with our own 
petticoats and pantaloons, we acknowledge the progress of 
civilisation and the growth of machinery. It is not a 
wonderful thing to us, that an African Prince should not be 
as perfectly dressed as a young man in Piccadilly. But when 
we make a comparison of morals between our own time and 
a period before Christ, we seem to forget that more should be 
expected from us, than from those who lived two thousand 
years ago. 

There are some of those pleadings, speeches made by 
Cicero on behalf of or against an accused party, from which 
we may learn more of Koman life than from any other source 
left to us. Much we may gather from Terence, much from 
Horace, something from Juvenal. There is hardly indeed a 
Latin author from which an attentive reader may not pick up 
some detail of Eoman customs. Cicero's letters are them- 
selves very prolific. But the pretty things of the poets 
are not quite facts, nor are the bitter things of the satirist ; 
and though a man's letters to his friend may be true, such 
letters as come to us will have been the products of the 
greater minds and will have come from a small and special 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

class. I fear that the Newgate Calendar of the day would 
tell us more of the ways of living then prevailing, than the 
letters of Lady Mary W. Montagu or of Horace Walpole. 
From the orations against Yerres we learn how the people of 
a province lived under the tyranny inflicted upon them, and 
from those spoken in defence of Sextus Amerinus, and Aulus 
Cluentius we gather something of the horrors of Eoman 
life, not in Eome indeed, but within the limits of Eoman 
citizenship. 

It is however as a man of letters that Cicero will be held 
in the highest esteem. It has been his good fortune to have 
a great part of what he wrote preserved for future ages. His 
works have not perished as have those of his contemporaries 
Varro and Hortensius. But this has been due to two causes 
which were independent of Fortune. He himself believed 
in their value and took measures for their protection, and 
those who lived in his own time, and in the immediately 
succeeding ages entertained the same belief and took the 
same care. Livy said that to write Latin well, the writer 
should write it like Cicero, and Quintillian, the first of Latin 
critics, repeated to us what Livy had asserted. 1 There is a 
sweetness of language about Cicero which runs into the very 
sound; so that passages, read aright, would by their very 
cadences, charm the ear of listeners ignorant of the language. 
Eulogy never was so happy as his. Eulogy however is 
tasteless in comparison with invective. Cicero's abuse is 
awful. Let the reader curious in such matters turn to the 

1 Quintillian, Lib. ii. c. 5. 



32 LIFE OF CICERO. 

diatribes against Vatinius, one of Caesar's creatures, and to 
that against the unfortunate Proconsul Piso, or to his 
attacks on Gabinius, who was Consul together with Piso 
in the year of Cicero's banishment. There are wonderful 
morsels in the Philippics dealing with Antony's private 
character; but the words which he uses against Gabinius 
and Piso beat all that I know elsewhere in the science 
of invective. Junius could not approach him; and even 
Macaulay, though he has, in certain passages, been very 
bitter, has not allowed himself the latitude which Roman 
taste and Eoman manners permitted to Cicero. 

It may, however, be said that the need of biographical 
memoirs as to a man of letters is by no means in proportion 
to the excellence of the work that he has achieved. Alex- 
ander is known but little to us, because we know so little of 
the details of his life. Csesar is much to us, because we 
have in truth been made acquainted with him. But Shake- 
speare, of whose absolute doings we know almost nothing, 
would not be nearer or dearer, had he even had a Boswell to 
paint his daily portrait. The man of letters is, in truth, ever 
writing his own biography. What there is in his mind, is 
being declared to the world at large by himself. And if he 
can so write that the world at large shall care to read what is 
written, no other memoir will perhaps be necessary. For 
myself I have never regretted those details of Shakespeare's 
life which a Boswell of the time might have given us. But 
Cicero's personality as a man of letters seems especially to 
require elucidation. His letters lose their chief charm if the 
character of the man be not known, and the incidents of his 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

life. His essays on rhetoric, the written lessons which he 
has left on the art of oratory, are a running commentary on 
his own career as an orator. Most of his speeches require for 
their understanding a knowledge of the circumstances of his 
life. The treatises which we know as his Philosophy, works 
which have been most wrongly represented by being grouped 
under that name, can only be read with advantage by the 
light of his own experience. There are two separate classes 
of his so-called Philosophy, in describing which the word 
Philosophy, if it be used at all, must be made to bear two 
different senses. He handles in one set of treatises, not, I 
think, with his happiest efforts, the teaching of the old Greek 
schools. Such are the Tusculan Disquisitions, the Academics, 
and the De Finibus. From reading these, without reference 
to the idiosyncrasies of the writer, the student would be led 
to believe that Cicero himself was a philosopher after that 
sort. But he was, in truth, the last of men to lend his ears 

" To those budge doctors of the stoic fur." 

Cicero was a man thoroughly human in all his strength and 
all his weakness. To sit apart from the world and be happy 
amidst scorn poverty and obscurity, with a mess of cabbage 
and a crust, absolutely contented with abstract virtue, has 
probably been given to no man. But of none has it been less 
within the reach than of Cicero. To him ginger was always 
hot in the mouth, whether it was the spice of politics, or of 
social delight, or of intellectual enterprise. When in his 
deep sorrow at the death of his daughter, when for a time the 

VOL. I. \j 



34 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Republic was dead to him, and public and private life were 
equally black, he craved employment. Then he took down 
his Greek manuscripts and amused himself as best he might 
by writing this way or that. It was a matter on which his 
intellect could work and his energies be employed, though 
the theory of his life was in no way concerned in it. Such 
was one class of his philosophy. The other consisted of a 
code of morals, which he created for himself by his own 
convictions formed on the world around him, and which 
displayed itself in essays, such as those " De Onions," on the 
duties of life, " De Senectute," " De Amicitia," on old age 
and friendship, and the like, which were not only intended 
for use, but are of use, to any man or woman who will study 
them up to this day. There are others, treatises on law and 
on government and religion, which have all been lumped to- 
gether, for the misguidance of schoolboys, under the name of 
Cicero's philosophy. But they, be they of one class or the 
other, require an understanding of the man's character before 
they can be enjoyed. 

For these reasons I think that there are incidents in the 
life, the character, and the work of Cicero, which ought to 
make his biography interesting. His story is fraught with 
energy, with success, with pathos, and with tragedy. And 
then it is the story of a man human as men are now. No 
child of Rome ever better loved his country, but no child of 
Rome was ever so little like a Roman. Arms and battles 
were to him abominable, as they are to us. But arms and 
battles were the delight of Romans. He was ridiculed in his 



INTRODUCTION. 35 

own time, and has been ridiculed ever since, for the allite- 
rating twang of the line in which he declared his feeling ; 

" Cedant anna togse ; concedat laurea linguae." 

But the thing said was thoroughly good, and the better, 
because the opinion was addressed to men among whom the 
glory of arms was still in ascendant over the achievements of 
intellectual enterprise. The greatest men have been those 
who have stepped out from the mass, and gone beyond their 
time, seeing things, with eyesight almost divine, which have 
hitherto been hidden from the crowd. Such was Columbus 
when he made his way across the Western Ocean ; such were 
Galileo, and Bacon; such was Pythagoras, if the ideas we 
have of him be at all true. Such also was Cicero. It is not 
given to the age in which such men live, to know them. 
Could their age even recognise them, they would not over- 
step their age, as they do. Looking back at him now we 
can see how like a Christian was the man, so like, that in 
essentials, we can hardly see the difference. He could love 
another as himself, as nearly as a man may do; and he 
taught such love as a doctrine. 1 He believed in the existence 
of one supreme God. 2 He believed that man would rise 
again and live for ever in some heaven. 3 I am conscious 



1 De Finibus, lib. v. ca. TTJJ T " Nemo est igitur, qui non hanc affectionem 
animi probet atque laudet." 

/ 2 De Rep. lib. vi. ca. vii. "Nihil est enim illi principi deo, qui omnem 
hunc mundum regit, quod quidem in terris fiat acceptius." Tusc. Quest, 
lib. i. ca. xxx. Vetat enim dominans ille in nobis deus. 

, 3 De Rep. lib. vi. ca. vii., " Certum esse in coelo definitum locum, ubi beati 
aevo sempiterno fraantur." 

D 2 



36 LIFE OF CICERO. 

that I cannot much promote this view of Cicero's character 
by quoting isolated passages from his works, words which 
taken alone may be interpreted in one sense or another, and 
which should be read, each with its context, before their due 
meaning can be understood. But I may perhaps succeed in 
explaining to a reader what it is that I hope to do in the 
following pages, and why it is that I undertake a work which 
must be laborious, and for which many will think that there 
is no remaining need. 

I would not have it thought that, because I have so 
spoken of Cicero's aspirations and convictions, I intend 
to put him forth as a faultless personage in history. He was 
much too human to be perfect. Those who love the cold 
attitude of indifference may sing of Cato as perfect. Cicero 
was ambitious, and often unscrupulous in his ambition. He 
was a loving husband and a loving father ; but at the end of 
his life he could quarrel with his old wife irrecoverably, 
and could idolize his daughter, while he ruined his son by 
indulgence. He was very great while he spoke of his country, 
which he did so often ; but he was almost as little, when he 
spoke of himself which he did as often. In money matters 
he was honest, for the times in which he lived wonderfully 
honest. But in words he was not always equally trustworthy. 
He could natter where he did not love. I admit that it was 
so, though I will not admit without a protest that the word, 
insincere, should be applied to him as describing his character 
generally. He was so much more sincere than others, that 
the protest is needed. If a man stand but five feet eleven 
inches in his shoes, shall he be called a pigmy ? And 



INTRODUCTION. 37 

yet to declare that he measures full six feet would be 
untrue. 

Cicero was a busybody. Were there anything to do, he 
wished to do it, let it be what it might. " Cedant arma 
togae." If anything was written on his heart it was that. 
Yet he loved the idea of leading an army and panted for a 
military triumph. Letters and literary life were dear to him, 
and yet he liked to think that he could live on equal terms 
with the young bloods of Borne, such as Ccelius. As far as I 
can judge he cared nothing for luxurious eating and drinking, 
and yet he wished to be reckoned among the gourmands- and 
gourmets of his times. He was so little like the " budge , 
doctors of the stoic fur," of whom it was his delight to write 
when he had nothing else to do, that he could not bear any 
touch of adversity with equanimity. The stoic requires to 
be hardened against "the stings and arrows of outrageous 
fortune." It is his profession to be indifferent to the " whips 
and scorns of time." No man was less hardened, or more 
subject to suffering from scorns and whips. There be those 
who think proneness to such suffering is unmanly, or that the 
sufferer should at any rate hide his agony. Cicero did not. 
Whether of his glory or of his shame, whether of his joy or 
of his sorrow, whether of his love or of his hatred, whether of 
his hopes or of his despair, he spoke openly, as he did of 
all things. It has not been the way of heroes, as we read 
of them ; but it is the way with men as we live with them 

What a man he would have been for London life ! How 
he would have enjoyed his club, picking up the news of the 
day from all lips, while he seemed to give it to all ears. 



38 LIFE OF CICERO. 

How popular he would have been at the Carlton, and how 
men would have listened to him while every great or little 
crisis was discussed! How supreme he would have sat on 
the Treasury bench, or how unanswerable, how fatal, how 
joyous when attacking the Government from the opposite 
seats ! How crowded would have been his rack with invi- 
tations to dinner ! How delighted would have been the 
middle-aged Countesses of the time to hold with him mild 
intellectual flirtations, and the girls of the period, how 
proud to get his autograph, how much prouder to have 
touched the lips of the great orator with theirs ! How the 
pages of the magazines would have run over with little 
essays from his pen ! " Have you seen our Cicero's paper on 

agriculture ? That lucky fellow, Editor , got him to do 

it last month ! " " Of course you have read Cicero's article 
on the soul The Bishops don't know which way to turn." 
" So the political article in the Quarterly is Cicero's." " Of 
course, you know the art-criticism in the Times this year is 
Tully's doing!" But that would probably be a bounce. 
And then what letters he would write! With the penny 
post instead of travelling messengers at his command, and 
pen instead of wax and sticks, or perhaps with an instru- 
ment-writer and a private secretary, he would have answered 
all questions and solved all difficulties. He would have so 
abounded with intellectual fertility, that men would not have 
known whether most to admire his powers of expression or to 
depreciate his want of reticence. 

There will necessarily be much to be said of Cicero's 
writings in the following pages, as it is my object to 



INTRODUCTION. 39 

delineate the literary man as well as the politician. In- doing 
this, there arises a difficulty as to the sequence in which his 
works should be taken. It will hardly suit the purpose 
in view to speak of them all either chronologically, or 
separately as to their subjects. The speeches and the letters 
clearly require the former treatment as applying each to the 
very moment of time at which they were either spoken or 
written. His treatises whether on rhetoric, or on the Greek 
philosophy, or on government, or on morals can best be taken 
apart as belonging in a very small degree, if at all, to the 
period in which they were written. I will therefore en- 
deavour to introduce the orations and letters as the periods 
may suit, and to treat of his essays afterwards by themselves. 
A few words I must say as to the Eoman names I have 
used in my narrative. There is a difficulty in this respect 
because the practice of my boyhood has partially changed 
itself. Pompey used to be Pompey without a blush. Now 
with an erudite English writer he is generally Pompeius. 
The denizens of Africa, the "nigger" world, have had, I 
think, something to do with this. But with no erudite 
English writer is Terence Terentius, or Virgil Virgilius, or 
Horace Horatius. Were I to speak of Livius, the erudite 
English listener would think that I alluded to an old author 
long prior to our dear historian. And though we now talk of 
Sulla instead of Sylla, we hardly venture on Antonius instead 
of Antony. Considering all this, I have thought it better to 
cling to the sounds, which have ever been familiar to myself; 
and as I talk of Virgil and of Horace and Ovid freely and 
without fear, so shall I speak also of Pompey and of Antony 



40 LIFE OF CICERO. 

and of Catiline. In regard to Sulla, the change has been so 
complete, that I must allow the old name to have re-estab- 
lished itself altogether. 

It has been customary to notify the division of years in 
the period of which I am about to write by dating from two 
different eras, counting down from the building of Rome, 
A. U. C. or " anno urbis conditse," and back from the birth 
of Christ, which we English mark by the letters B. C. before 
Christ. In dealing with Cicero writers, both French and 
English, have not uncommonly added a third mode of dating, 
assigning his doings or sayings to the year of his age. There 
is again a fourth mode, common among the Romans, of in- 
dicating the special years by naming the Consuls, or one of 
them. " nata mecum consule Manlio," Horace says when 
addressing his cask of wine. That was indeed the official 
mode of indicating a date, and may probably be taken as 
showing how strong the impression in the Roman mind was 
of the succession of their Consuls. In the following pages I 
will use generally the date B. C. which, though perhaps less 
simple than the A. U. C., gives to the mind of the modern 
reader a clearer idea of the juxtaposition of events. The 
reader will surely know that Christ was born in the reign 
of Augustus, and crucified in that of Tiberius ; but he will 
not perhaps know, without the trouble of some calculation, 
how far removed from the period of Christ was the year 648, 
A. U. C., in which Cicero was born. To this, I will add on 
the margin, the year of Cicero's life. He was nearly sixty- 
four when he died. I shall therefore call that year his sixty- 
third year. 



CHAP-TEE IT. 



HIS EDUCATION. 

AT Arpinum, on the river Liris, a little stream which has 
been made to sound sweetly in our ears by Horace, 1 in a villa 
residence near the town, Marcus TuUius Cicero was born 
106 years before Christ, on the 3rd of January, according to 
the calendar then in use. Pompey the Great was born in the 
same year. Arpinum was a state which had been admitted 
into Eoman citizenship, lying between Eome and Capua, just 
within that portion of Italy which was till the other day 
called the Kingdom of Naples. The district from which 
he came is noted also as having given birth to Marius. 
Cicero was of an equestrian family, which means as much 
as though we were to say among ourselves that a man had 
been bom a gentleman and nothing more. An " eques " or 
knight in Cicero's time became so, or might become so, by 
being in possession of a certain income. The title conferred 
no nobility. The plebeian, it will be understood, could not be- 
come patrician, though he might become noble, as Cicero did. 
The patrician must have been born so, must have sprung 

1 Hor. lib. i. ode xxii. 

" Non rura quae Liris quieta 
Mordet aqua taciturnus ananis. 



42 LIFE OF CICERO. 

from the purple of certain fixed families. 1 Cicero was born a 
plebeian, of equestrian rank, and became ennobled when he 
was ranked among the senators because of his service among 
the high magistrates of the Republic. As none of his family 
had served before him he was " novus homo," a new man, 
and therefore not noble till he had achieved nobility himself. 
A man was noble who could reckon a Consul, a Prsetor, or an 
<<Edile among his ancestors. Such was not the case with 
Cicero. As he filled all these offices his son was noble, 
as were his son's sons and grandsons if such there were. 

It was common to Romans to have three names, and our 
Cicero had three. Marcus, which was similar in its use to 
the Christian name of one of us, had been that of his 
grandfather, and father, and was handed on to his son. 
This, called the prsenomen, was conferred on the child when 
a baby with a ceremony not unlike that of our baptism. 
There was but a limited choice of such names among the 
Romans, so that an initial letter will generally declare to 
those accustomed to the literature that intended. A. stands 
for Aulus, P. for Publius ; M. generally for Marcus, C. for 
Caius, though there was a Cneus also. The nomen, Tullius, 
was that of the family. Of this family of Tullius to which 
Cicero belonged we know no details. Plutarch tells us that 
of his father nothing was said but in extremes, some de- 
claring that he had been a fuller, and others that he had 

1 Such was the presumed condition of things at Rome. By the passing of 
a special law a plebeian might, and occasionally did, become patrician. The 
patricians had so nearly died out in the time of Julius Caesar that he intro- 
duced fifty new families by the Lex Cassia. 



HIS EDUCATION. 43 

been descended from a Prince who had governed the Volsci. 
We do not see why he may not have sprung from the Prince 
and also have been a fuller. There can, however, be no doubt 
that he was a gentleman, not uneducated himself, with 
means and the desire to give his children the best education 
which Rome or Greece afforded. The third name or cog- 
nomen, that of Cicero, belonged to a branch of the family 
of Tullius. This third name had generally its origin, as- 
do so many of our surnames, in some speciality of place 
or trade, or chance circumstance. It was said that an 
ancestor had been called Cicero from " cicer," a vetch, because 
his nose was marked with the figure of that vegetable. It is 
more probable that the family prospered by the growing and 
sale of vetches. Be that as it may, the name had been well 
established before the orator's time. Cicero's mother was one 
Helvia, of whom we are told that she was well born and rich. 
Cicero himself never alludes to her; as neither if I re- 
member rightly, 'did Horace to his mother, though he speaks 
so frequently of his father. Helvia's younger son, Quintus, 
tells a story of his mother in a letter, which has been, by 
chance, preserved among those written by our Cicero. She 
was in the habit of sealing up the empty wine-jars, as well as 
those which were full, so that a jar emptied on the sly by a 
guzzling slave might be at once known. This is told in a 
letter to Tiro, a favourite slave belonging to Marcus, of whom 
we shall hear often in the course of our work. As the old 
lady sealed up the jars, though they contained no wine, so 
must Tiro write letters, though he has nothing to say in 
them. This kind of argument, taken from the old familiar 



44 LIFE OF CICERO. 

stories of one's childhood and one's parents, could be only 
used to a dear and familiar friend. Such was Tiro, though 
still a slave, to the two brothers. Eoman life admitted of 
such friendships, though the slave was so completely the 
creature of the master, that his life and death were at the 
master's disposal. This is nearly all that is known of Cicero's 
father and mother or of his old home. 

. There is, however, sufficient evidence that the father paid 
great attention to the education of his sons, if, in the case of 
Marcus, any evidence were wanting where the result is so 
manifest by the work of his life. At a very early age, 
probably when he was eight, in the year which produced 
Julius Csesar, he was sent to Eome, and there was devoted 
to studies which from the first were intended to fit him for 
public life. Middleton says that the father lived in Rome 
with his son, and argues from this that he was a man of 
large means. But Cicero gives no authority for this. It is 
more probable that he lived at the house of one Aculeo who 
had married his mother's sister, and had sons with whom 
Cicero was educated. Stories are told of his precocious 
talents and performances such as we are accustomed to 
hear of many remarkable men, not unfrequently from their 
own mouths. It is said of him that he was intimate with 
the two great advocates of the time Lucius Crassus and 
Marcus Antonius the orator, the grandfather of Cicero's 
future enemy whom we know as Marc Antony. Cicero 
speaks of them both as though he had seen them, and talked 
much of them in his youth. He tells us anecdotes of them, 1 
1 De Orat. lib. ii. ca. 1. 



HIS EDUCATION. 45 

how they were both accustomed to conceal their knowledge 
of Greek, fancying that the people in whose eyes they were 
anxious to shine would think more of them if they seemed 
to have contented themselves simply with Boman words and 
Roman thoughts. But the intimacy was probably that 
which a lad now is apt to feel that he has enjoyed with 
a great man, if he has seen and heard him, and perhaps 
been taken by the hand. He himself gives in very plain 
language, an account of his own studies when he was 
seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen. He speaks of the 
orators of that day. 1 "When I was above all things 
anxious to listen to these men, the banishment of Cotta 
was a great sorrow to me. I was passionately intent on hear- 
ing those who were left, daily writing, reading, and making 
notes. Nor was I content only with practice in the art of 
speaking, In the following year, Varius had to go, condemned 
by his own enactment ; and at this time, in working at the 
civil law, I gave much of my time to Quintus Scsevola, the 
son of Publius, who, though he took no pupils, by explaining 
points to those who consulted him, gave great assistance to 
students. The year after, when Sulla and Pompey were 
Consuls, I learned what oratory really means by listening 
to Publius Sulpicius who as tribune was daily making 
harangues. It was then that Philo the Chief of the 
Academy, with other leading philosophers of Athens, had 
been put to flight by the war with Mitbridates, and had 
come to Rome. To him I devoted myself entirely, stirred up 
by a wonderful appetite for acquiring the Greek philosophy. 
1 Brutus, ca. Ixxxix. 



46 LIFE OF CICERO. 

But in that, though the variety of the pursuit and its great- 
ness charmed me altogether, yet it seemed to me that the 
very essence of judicial conclusion was altogether suppressed- 
In that year Sulpicius perished, and in the next, three 
of our greatest orators, Quintus Catulus, Marcus Antonius, 
and Caius Julius were cruelly killed." This was the time of 
the civil war between Marius and Sulla. " In the same year, 
I took lessons from Molo .the Ehodian, a great pleader and 
master of the art." In the next chapter he tells us that he 
passed his time also with Diodatus the Stoic, who afterwards 
lived with him, and died in his house. Here we have an 
authentic description of the manner in which Cicero passed 
his time as a youth at Ecme, and one we can reduce probably 
to absolute truth by lessening the superlatives. Nothing in 
it, however, is more remarkable than the confession that 
while his young intellect rejoiced in the subtle argu- 
mentation of the Greek philosophers, his clear common 
sense quarrelled with their inability to reach any positive 
conclusion. 

But before these days of real study had come upon him, he 
had given himself up to juvenile poetry. He is said to have 
written a poem called Pontius Glaucus when he was fourteen 
years old. This was no doubt a translation from the Greek, 
as were most of the poems that he wrote and many portions 
of his prose treatises. 1 Plutarch tells us that the poem was 

1 It should be remembered that in Latin literature it was the recognised 
practice of authors to borrow wholesale from the Greek, and that no charge of 
plagiarism attended such borrowing. Virgil in taking thoughts and language 
from Homer was simply supposed to have shown his judgment in accommo- 



HIS EDUCATION. 47 

extant in his time and declares that, " in process of time when 
he had studied this art with greater application he was looked 
upon as the best poet, as well as the greatest orator in Rome." 
The English translators of Plutarch tell us that their author 
was an indifferent judge of Latin poetry, and allege as proof 
of this, that he praised Cicero as a poet, a praise which he 
gave " contrary to the opinion of Juvenal." But Juvenal has 
given no opinion of Cicero's poetry, having simply quoted 
one unfortunate line noted for its egotism, and declared that 
Cicero would never have had his head cut off had his 
Philippics been of the same nature. 1 The evidence of 
Quintus Mucius Scsevola as to Cicero's poetry was perhaps 
better, as he had the means, at any rate, of reading it. 
He believed that the Marius, a poem written by Cicero in 
praise of his great fellow-townsman would live to posterity 
for ever. The story of the old man's prophecy comes to us, 
no doubt, from Cicero himself, and is put into the mouth of 
his brother, 2 but had it been untrue it would have been 
contradicted. 

The Glaucus was a translation from the Greek, done by a 



dating Greek delights to Roman ears and Roman intellects. The idea as to 
literary larceny is of later date, and has grown up with personal claims for 
orginality, and with copyright. Shakespeare did not acknowledge whence he 
took his plots because it was unnecessary. Now if a writer borrow a tale from 
the French it is held that he ought at least to owe the obligation, or perhaps 
even pay for it. 

1 Juvenal, Sat. x. 122 

" fortunatum natam me Consule Romam ! 
Antoni gladios po'tuit contemnere, si sic 
Omnia dixisset." 
1 De Leg, lib. i. ca, 1. 



48 LIFE OF CICERO. 

boy, probably as a boy's lesson. It is not uncommon that 
such exercises should be treasured by parents, or perhaps by 
the performer himself, and not impossible that they should be 
made to reappear afterwards as original compositions. Lord 
Brougham tells us in his autobiography that in his early 
youth he tried his hand at writing English Essays and even 
tales of fiction. 1 " I find one of these," he says, " has survived 
the waste-paper basket, and it may amuse my readers to see 
the sort of composition I was guilty of at the age of thirteen. 
My tale was entitled ' Memnon, or Human Wisdom ' and is 
as follows ; " Then we have a fair translation of Voltaire's 
romance, " Memnon," or " La Sagesse Humaine." The old 
Lord, when he was collecting his papers for his autobiography 
had altogether forgotten his Voltaire, and thought that he had 
composed the story ! Nothing so absurd as that is told 
of Cicero by himself or on his behalf. 

It may be as well to say here what there may be to be 
said as to Cicero's poetry generally. But little of it remains 
to us, and by that little it has been admitted that he has not 
achieved the name of a great poet ; but what he did was too 
great in extent, and too good in its nature to be passed over 
altogether without notice. It has been his fate to be rather 
ridiculed than read as a maker of verses, and that ridicule 
has come from two lines which I have already quoted. 
The longest piece which we have is from the Phsenomena 
of Aratus, which he translated from the Greek when he was 



1 Life and Times of Henry Lord Brougham, written by himself, vol. i. 
p. 58. 



HIS EDUCATION. 49 

eighteen years old, and which describes the heavenly bodies. 
It is known to us best by the extracts from it given by the 
author himself in his treatise De Natura Deorum. It must 
be owned that it is not pleasant reading. But translated 
poetry seldom is pleasant, and could hardly be made so on 
such a subject by a boy of eighteen. The Marius was 
written two years after this, and we have a passage from it 
quoted by the author in his De Divinatione, containing some 
fine lines. It tells the story of the battle of the eagle and 
the serpent. Cicero took it, no doubt, not translated it how- 
ever, from the^passage in the Iliad, Lib. xii. 200, which has 
been rendered by Pope with less than his usual fire, and by 
Lord Derby with no peculiar charm. Virgil has reproduced 
the picture with his own peculiar grace of words. His 
version has been translated by Dryden, but better perhaps by 
Christopher Pitt. Voltaire has translated Cicero's lines with 
great power, and Shelley has reproduced the same idea at 
much greater length in the first canto of the Revolt of Islam, 
taking it probably from Cicero, but, if not, from Voltaire. 1 
I venture to think that, of the nine versions, Cicero's is the 
best, and that it is the most melodious piece of Latin poetry 
we have up to that date. Twenty-seven years afterwards, 
when Lucretius was probably at work on his great poem, 
Cicero wrote an account of his consulship in verse. Of this 
we have fifty or sixty lines, in which the author describes 



1 I give the nine versions to which I allude in an Appendix A., at the end 
of this volume, so that those curious in such matters may compare the words 
n which the same picture has been drawn by various hands. 

VOL. I. E 



50 LIFE OF CICERO. 

the heavenly warnings which were given as to the affairs 
of his own consular year. The story is not a happy one, but 
the lines are harmonious. It is often worth our while to 
inquire how poetry has become such as it is, and how the 
altered and improved phases of versification have arisen. To 
trace our melody from Chaucer to Tennyson is matter of 
interest to us all. Of Cicero as a poet we may say that 
he found Latin versification rough and left it smooth and 
musical. Now, as we go on with the orator's life and prose 
works, we need not return to his poetry. 

The names of many masters have been given to us as 
those under whom Cicero's education was carried on. Among 
others he is supposed, at a very early age, to have been 
confided to Archias. Archias was a Greek born at Antioch, 
who devoted himself to letters ; and if we are to believe 
what Cicero says when speaking as an advocate, excelled 
all his rivals of the day. Like many other educated Greeks 
he made his way to Eome, and was received as one of the 
household of Lucullus, with whom he travelled, accompanying 
him even to the wars. He became a citizen of Eome, so 
Cicero assures us, and Cicero's tutor. What Cicero owed 
to him we do not know, but to Cicero Archias owed 
immortality. His claim to citizenship was disputed, and 
Cicero, pleading on his behalf, made one of those shorter 
speeches which are perfect in melody, in taste, and in 
language. There is a passage in which, speaking on behalf 
of so excellent a professor in the art, he sings the praises 
of literature generally. I know no words written in 
praise of books more persuasive or more valuable. "Other 



HIS EDUCATION. 51 

recreations," he says, "do not belong to all seasons, nor to 
all ages, nor to all places. These pursuits nourish our 
youth and delight our old age. They adorn our prosperity, 
and give a refuge and a solace to our troubles. They charm 
us at home, and they are not in our way when we are abroad. 
They go to bed with us. They travel about with us. They 
accompany us as we escape into the country." l Archias 
probably did something for him in directing his taste, and 
has been rewarded thus richly. As to other lessons we know 
that he was instructed in law by Scsevola, and he has told us 
that he listened to Crassus and Antony. At sixteen he 
went through the ceremony of putting off his^ boy's dress, 
the toga prsetexta, and appearing in the toga virilis before 
the Praetor, thus assuming his right to go about a man's 
business. At sixteen the work of education was not finished, 
no more than it is with us when a lad at Oxford becomes 
" of age " at twenty-one ; nor was he put beyond his father's 
power, the " patria potestas," from which no age availed to 
liberate a son ; but nevertheless it was a very joyful ceremony, 
and was duly performed by Cicero in the midst of his studies 
with Scaevola. 

At' eighteen he joined the army. That doctrine of the 
division of labour which now, with us, runs through and 
dominates all pursuits, had not as yet been made plain to the 
minds of men at Eome by the political economists of the 
day. It was well that a man should know something of 
many things, that he should especially, if he intended to 

1 Pro Archia, ca. vii. 

2 



52 LIFE OF CICERO. 

be a leader of men, be both soldier and orator. To rise to 
be Consul, having first been Quaestor, ^Edile and Praetor was 
the path of glory. It had been the special duty of the 
Consuls of Borne, since the establishment of consular govern- 
ment, to lead the armies of the Eepublic. A portion of the 
duty devolved upon the Praetors as wars became more 
numerous; and latterly, the commanders were attended by 
Quaestors. The Governors of the provinces, Pro-Consuls or 
Pro-Praetors, with proconsular ^authority, always combined 
military with civil authority. The art of war was therefore 
a necessary part of the education of a man intended to rise in 
the service of the State. Cicero, though, in his endeavour to 
follow his own tastes he made a strong effort to keep himself 
free from such work, and to remain at Eome instead of being 
sent abroad as a Governor, had, at last, to go where fighting 
was in some degree necessary, and, in the saddest phase of 
his life, appeared in Italy with his lictors, demanding the 
honours of a triumph. In anticipation of such a career, no 
doubt under the advice of his friends, he now went out to 
see, if not a battle, something at any rate of war. It has 
already been said how the citizenship of Eome was conferred 
on some of the small Italian states around, and not on others. 
Hence of course arose jealousy, which was increased by the 
feeling on the part of those excluded that they were called to 
furnish soldiers to Eome, as well as those who were included. 
Then there was formed a combination of Italian cities sworn 
to remedy the injury thus inflicted on them. Their purpose 
was to fight Eome in order that they might achieve Eoman 
citizenship, and hence arose the first civil war which distracted 



HIS EDUCATION. 53 

the empire. Pompeius Strabo, father of Pompey the Great, 
was then Consul (B. C. 89), and Cicero was sent out to see 
the campaign under him. Marius and Sulla, the two Eomans 
who were destined soon to bathe Borne in blood, had not yet 
quarrelled, though they had been brought to hate each other, 
Marius by jealousy, and Sulla by rivalry. In this war they 
both served under the Consuls, and Cicero served with Sulla. 
We know nothing of his doings in that campaign. There are 
no tidings even of a misfortune such as that which happened 
to Horace when he went out to fight, and came home from the 
battle-field " relicta non bene parmula." 

Eome trampled on the rebellious cities, and in the end 
admitted them to citizenship. But probably the most im- 
portant, certainly the most notorious result of the Italian 
war, was the deep antagonism of Marius and Sulla. Sulla had 
made himself conspicuous by his fortune on the occasion, 
whereas Marius who had become the great soldier of the 
Eepublic, and had been six times Consul, failed to gather 
fresh laurels. Home was falling into that state of anarchy 
which was the cause of all the glory and all the disgrace of 
Cicero's life, and was open to the dominion of any soldier 
whose grasp might be the least scrupulous and the strongest. 
Marius after a series of romantic adventures with which we 
must not connect ourselves here, was triumphant, only just 
before his death, while Sulla went off with his army, pillaged 
Athens, plundered Asia Minor generally, and made terms 
with Mithridates though he did not conquer him. With the 
purport, no doubt, of conquering Mithridates, but perhaps 
with the stronger object of getting him out of Rome, the 



54 LIFE OF CICERO. 

army had been intrusted to him with the consent of the 
Marian faction. 

Then came those three years, when Sulla was in the East 
and Marius dead, of which Cicero speaks as a period of peace 
in which a student was able to study in Eome. " Triennium 
fere fuit urbs sine armis." l These must have been the years 
86, 85 and 84 before Christ, when Cicero was twenty-one, 
twenty-two and twenty-three years old, and it was this 
period, in truth, of which he speaks, and not of earlier years, 
when he tells us of his studies with Philo, and Molo, and 
Diodatus. Precocious as he was in literature, writing one 
poem, or translating it, when he was fourteen, and another 
when he was eighteen, he was by no means in a hurry to 
commence the work of his life. He is said also to have 
written a treatise on military tactics when he was nineteen, 
which again, no doubt, means that he had exercised himself 
by translating such an essay from the Greek. This happily 
does not remain. But we have four books " Pthetoricorum 
ad C. Herennium," and two books "De Inventione," attri 
buted to his twentieth and twenty-first year, which are 
published with his works and commence the series. Of all 
that we have from him, they are perhaps the least worth 
reading, but as they are, or were, among his recognised 
writings a word shall be said of them in their proper place. 

The success of the education of Cicero probably became a 
commonplace among Latin schoolmasters and Latin writers. 
In the dialogue De Oratoribus attributed to Tacitus the story 

1 Brutus, ca. xc. 



HIS EDUCATION. 55 

of it is given by Messala, when he is praising the orators of 
the earlier age. " We know well," says Messala, " that book of 
Cicero which is called Brutus in the latter part of which he 
describes to us the beginning and the progress of his own 
eloquence, and as it were, the bringing up on which it was 
founded. He tells as that he had learned civil law under Q. 
Mutius Scaevola ; that he had exhausted the realm of philo- 
sophy, learning that of the Academy under Philo and that 
of the Stoics under Diodatus; that not content with these 
treatises, he had travelled through Greece and Asia, so as to 
embrace the whole world of art. And thus it had come about 
that in the works of Cicero no knowledge is wanting, neither 
of music, nor of grammar, nor any other liberal accomplish- 
ment. He understood the subtilty of logic, the purpose of 
ethics, the effects and causes of things." Then the speaker 
goes on to explain what may be expected from study such as 
that. " Thus it is, my good friends, thus, that from the 
acquirement of many arts and from a general knowledge of 
all things, eloquence that is truly admirable is created in 
its full force ; for the power and capacity of an orator need 
not be hemmed in, as are those other callings, by certain 
narrow bounds ; but that man is the true orator who is able 
to speak on all subjects, with dignity and grace, so as to 
persuade those who listen and to delight them, in a manner 
suited to the nature of the subject in hand and the con- 
venience of the time." l 

We might fancy that we were reading words from Cicero 

1 Tacitus, De Oratoribus, xxx. 



56 LIFE OF CICERO. 

himself! Then the speaker in this imaginary conversation 
goes on to tell us how far matters had derogated in his time, 
pointing out at the same time, that the evils which he 
deplores had shown themselves even before Cicero, but had 
been put down, as far as the law could put them down by its 
interference. He is speaking of those schools of rhetoric, in 
which Greek professors of the art gave lessons for money, 
which were evil in their nature, and not, as it appears, 
efficacious even for the purpose in hand. " But now," 
continues Messala, "our very boys are brought into the 
schools of those lecturers who are called 'rhetores,' who 
had sprung up before Cicero, to the displeasure of our 
ancestors, as is evident from the fact that when Crassus and 
Domitius were Censors they were ordered to shut up their 
school of impudence, as Cicero calls it. Our boys as I was 
going to say, are taken to these lecture rooms in which it is 
hard to say whether the atmosphere of the place, or the lads 
they are thrown among, or the nature of the lessons taught, 
are the most injurious. In the place itself, there is neither 
discipline nor respect. All who go there are equally ignorant. 
The boys among the boys, the lads among the lads, utter and 
listen to just what words they please. Their very exercises 
are for the most part useless. Two kinds are in vogue with 
these 'rhetores,' called 'suasoriae' and ' controversies/ " 
tending, we may perhaps say to persuade or to refute. " Of 
these the ' suasorise ' as being the lighter, and requiring less 
of experience, are given to the little boys, the ' controversies ' 
to the bigger lads. But, oh heavens, what they are, what 
miserable compositions!" Then he tells us the subjects 



HIS EDUCATION. 57 

selected. Rape, incest and other horrors are subjected to 
the lads for their declamation in order that they may learn to 
be orators. 

Messala then explains that in those latter days, his days 
that is, under the rule of despotic princes, truly large sub- 
jects are not allowed to be discussed in public, confessing 
however that those large subjects, though they afford fine 
opportunities to orators, are not beneficial to the State at 
large. But it was thus he says, that Cicero became what he 
was, who would not have grown into favour, had he defended 
only P. Quintius and Archias and had had nothing to do 
with Catiline, or Milo, or Verres, or Antony, showing by the 
way, how great was the reputation of that speech, Pro Milone, 
with which we shall have to deal further on. 

The treatise becomes somewhat confused, a portion of it 
having probably been lost. From whose mouth the last 
words are supposed to come is not apparent. It ends with 
a rhapsody in favour of imperial government, suitable indeed 
to the time of Domitian, but very unlike Tacitus. While 
however it praises despotism, it declares that only by the 
evils which despotism had quelled could eloquence be main- 
tained. " Our country, indeed, while it was astray in its 
government, while it tore itself to pieces by parties and 
quarrels and discord, while there was no peace in the Forum, 
no agreement in the Senate, no moderation on the judgment 
seat, no reverence for letters, no control among the magistrates, 
boasted, no doubt, a stronger eloquence." 

From what we are thus told of Cicero, not what we hear 
from himself, we are able to form an idea of the nature of his 



58 LIFE OF CICERO, 

education. With his mind fixed from his early days on the 
ambition of doing something noble with himself he gave 
himself up to all kinds of learning. It was Macaulay, I 
think, who said of him that the idea of conquering the 
" omne scibile," the understanding of all things within the 
reach of human intellect, was before his eyes as it was 
before those of Bacon. The special preparation which was 
in Cicero's time employed for students at the bar is also 
described in the treatise from which I have quoted, the 
preparation which is supposed to have been the very opposite 
of that afforded by the " rhetores." " Among ourselves the 
youth who was intended to achieve eloquence in the Forum 
when already trained at home and exercised in classical 
knowledge, was brought by his father or his friends to that 
orator who might then be considered to be the leading man 
in the city. It became his daily work to follow that man, to 
accompany him, to be conversant with all his speeches whether 
in the courts of law, or at public meetings, so that he might 
learn, if I might say so, to fight in the very thick of the 
throng." It was thus that Cicero studied his art. A few 
lines further down the pseudo-Tacitus tells us that Crassus 
in his nineteenth year held a brief against Carbo, that Caesar 
did so in his twenty-first against Dolabella, and Pollio, in his 
twenty-second year against Cato. 1 In this precocity Cicero 



1 Quintillian, lib. xii. c. vi., who wrote about the same time as this Essayist, 
tells us of these three instances of early oratory, not however specifying the 
exact age in either case. He also reminds us that Demosthenes pleaded when 
he was a boy, and that Augustus at the age of twelve made a public harangue 
in honour of his grandmother. ' 



HIS EDUCATION. 59 

did not imitate Crassus, or show an example to the Eomans 
who followed him. He was twenty-six when he pleaded his 
first cause. Sulla had then succeeded in crushing the Marian 
faction, and the Sullan proscriptions had taken place and 
were nominally over. Sulla had been declared Dictator, 
and had proclaimed that there should be no more selections 
for death. The Eepublic was supposed to be restored. 
" Recuperata republica * * * * turn primurn nos ad causas 
et privatas et publicas adire coepimus." l " The Republic 
having been restored, I then first applied myself to pleadings, 
both private and public." 

Of Cicero's politics at that time we are enabled to form a 
fair judgment. Marius had been his townsman. Sulla had 
been his captain. But the one thing dear to him was the 
Republic, what he thought to be the Republic. He was 
neither Marian nor Sullan. The turbulence in which so much 
noble blood had flowed, the " Crudelis interitus oratorum," the 
crushing out of the old legalized form of government was 
abominable to him. It was his hope, no doubt his expec- 
tation, that these old forms should be restored in all their 
power. There seemed to be more probability of this, there 
was more probability of it, on the side of Sulla than the 
other. On Sulla's side was Pompey, the then rising man, who 
being of the same age with Cicero, had already pushed himself 
into prominence, who was surnamed the Great, and who 
"triumphed" during these very two years in which Cicero 
began his career, who through Cicero's whole life was his 

1 Brutus, ca. xc. 



60 LIFE OF CICERO. 

bugbear, his stumbling-block, and his mistake. But on that 
side were the " optimates," the men who, if they did not lead, 
ought to lead the Republic, those who, if they were not 
respectable ought to be so, those who, if they did not love 
their country, ought to love it. If there was a hope, it was 

I with them. The old state of things, that oligarchy which 
has been called a Republic, had made Rome what it was, 
had produced power, civilization, art and literature. It had 
enabled such a one as Cicero was himself to aspire to lead, 
though he had been humbly born, and had come to Rome 
from an untried provincial family. To him the Republic, as 
he fancied that it had been, as he fancied that it might be, 
was all that was good, all that was gracious, all that was 
beneficent. On Sulla's side lay what chance there was 
of returning to the old ways. "When Sulla was declared 
Dictator, it was presumed that the Republic was restored. 
But not on this account should it be supposed that Cicero 
regarded the proscriptions of Sulla with favour, or that he 
was otherwise than shocked by the wholesale robberies for 
which the proscription paved the way. This is a matter with 
which it will be necessary to deal more fully, when we come 
in our next chapter to the first speeches made by Cicero, in 
the very first of which, as I place them, he attacks the Sullane 
robberies with an audacity which, when we remember that 
Sulla was still in power, rescues, at any rate, in regard to this 
period of his life, the character of the orator from that charge 
of cowardice which has been imputed to him. 

It is necessary here, in this chapter devoted to the edu- 
cation of Cicero, to allude to his two first speeches, because 



HIS EDUCATION. 61 

that education was not completed till afterwards, so that 
they may be regarded as experiments, or trials as it were of 
his force and sufficiency. " Not content with these teachers," 
teachers who had come to Eome from Greece and Asia, 
" he had travelled through Greece and Asia, so as to embrace / 

6 

the whole world of art." These words, quoted a few pages 
back from the treatise attributed to Tacitus, refer to a passage, 
in the Brutus, in which Cicero makes a statement to that 
effect. " When I reached Athens, 1 I passed six months with 
Antiochus, by far the best known and most erudite of the 
teachers of the Old Academy, and with him, as my great 
authority and master I renewed that study of philosophy 
which I had never abandoned, which from my boyhood I 
had followed with always increasing success. At the same 
time I practised oratory laboriously with Demetrius Syrus 
also at Athens, a well known and by no means incapable 
master of the art of speaking. After that I wandered over all 
Asia, and came across the best orators there, with whom I 
practised, enjoying their willing assistance." There is more 
of it which need not be repeated verbatim, giving the names 
of those who aided him in Asia, Menippus of Stratonice 
who, he says was sweet enough to have belonged himself to 
Athens, with Dionysius of Magnesia, with (Eschilus of 
Cnidos, and with Xenocles of Adramyttium. Then at 
Rhodes he came across his old friend Molo, and applied him- 
self again to the teaching of his former master. Quintilliau 
explains to us how this was done with a purpose, so that the 

1 Brutus, xci. 



62 LIFE OF CICERO. 

young orator when he had made a first attempt with his 
half-fledged wings in the courts might go back to his masters 
for a while. 1 

He was twenty-eight when he started on this tour. It has 
been suggested that he did so in fear of the resentment of 
Sulla, with whose favourites and with whose practices he had 
dealt very plainly. There is no reason for alleging this, except 
that Sulla was powerful, that Sulla was bloodthirsty, and that 
Sulla must have been offended. The kind of argument is 
often used. It is supposed to be natural, or at least probable, 
that in a certain position, a man should have been a coward, 
or a knave, ungrateful or cruel, and in the presumption 
thus raised the accusation is brought against him, " Fearing 
Sulla's resentment," Plutarch says, " he travelled into Greece 
and gave out that the recovery of his health was the motive." 
There is no evidence that such was his reason for travelling, 
and, as Middleton says in his behalf, it is certain that he 
" continued for a year after this in Eome without any 
apprehension of danger." It is best to take a man's own 
account of his own doings and their causes, unless there be 
ground for doubting the statement made. It is thus that 
Cicero himself speaks of his journey. " Now," he says, still 
in his Brutus, 2 " as you wish to know what I am, not simply 
what mark I may have on my body, from my birth, or with 



1 Quintillian, lib. xii. vi. " Qunm jam clarum meruisset inter patronos, 
qui turn erant, nomen, in Asiam navigavit, seque et aliis sine dubio eloquentise 
ac sapientise magistris, sed prsecipue tamen Apollonio Moloni, quern Romse 
quoque audierat, Rhodi rursus formandum ac velut recognendum dedit. " 

2 Brutus, xci. 



HIS EDUCATION. 63 

what surroundings of childhood I was brought up, I will 
include some details which might perhaps seem hardly 
necessary. At this time I was thin and weak, my neck 
being long and narrow, a habit and form of body which 
is supposed to be adverse to long life. And those who loved 
me thought the more of this, because I had taken to speaking 
without relaxation, witho^^t recreation, with all the powers of 
my voice, and with much muscular action. When my friends 
and the doctors desired me to give up speaking, I resolved 
that rather than abandon my career as an orator, 1 would 
face any danger. But when it occurred to me that by lowering 
my voice, by changing my method of speaking, I might avoid 
the danger, and, at the same time, learn to speak with more 
elegance, I accepted that as a reason for going into Asia, 
so that I might study how to change my mode of elocution. 
Thus when I had been two years at work upon causes, and 
when my name was already well known in the Forum, I took 
my departure and left Koine." 

During the six months that he was at Athens he renewed 
an early acquaintance with one who was destined to become 
the most faithful, and certainly the best known of his friends. 
This was Titus Pomponius, known to the world as that 
Atticus to whom were addressed something more than half the 
large body of letters which were written by Cicero, and which 
have remained for our use. 1 He seems to have lived much 
with Atticus, who was occupied with similar studies though 

1 The total correspoudence contains 817 letters, of which 52 were written 
to Cicero, 396 were written by Cicero to Atticus, and 369 by Cicero to his 
friends in general. "We have no letters from Atticus to Cicero. 



64 LIFE OF CICERO. 

with altogether different results. Atticus applied himself to 
the practices of the Epicurean school and did in truth become 
" Epicuri de grege porcus." To enjoy life, to amass a fortune, 
to keep himself free from all turmoils of war or state, to make 
the best of the times whether they were bad or good with- 
out any attempt on his part to mend them, this was the 
philosophy of Titus Pomponius, who was called Atticus 
because Athens, full of art and literature, easy, unenergetic 
and luxurious, was dear to him. To this philosophy, or 
rather, to this theory of life, Cicero was altogether opposed. 
He studied in all the schools, among the Platonists, the 
Stoics, even with the Epicureans enough to know their 
dogmas so that he might criticise them, proclaiming himself 
to belong to the new academy or younger school of Platonists; 
but in truth drawing no system of morals or rule of life from 
any of them. To him, and also to Atticus, no doubt, these 
pursuits afforded an intellectual pastime. Atticus found 
himself able to justify to himself the bent of his disposition 
by the name of a philosopher, and therefore became an 
Epicurean. Cicero could in no way justify to himself any 
deviation from the energy of public life, from its utility, from 
its ambition, from its loves or from its hatred, and from the 
Greek philosophers whom he named of this or the other 
school, received only some assistance in that handling of 
so-called philosophy which became the chief amusement of 
his future life. This was well understood by the Latin 
authors who wrote of Cicero after his own time. Quintillian 
speaking of Cicero and Brutus as writers of philosophy says 
of the latter, " Suffecit ponderi rerum ; scias enim sentire quse 



HIS EDUCATION. 65 

dicit." 1 "He was equal to the weight of the subject, for 
you feel that he believes what he writes." He leaves the 
inference of course that Cicero wrote on such matters 
only for the exercise of his ingenuity, as a school-boy 
writes. 

When at Athens Cicero was initiated into the Eleusinian 
mysteries, as to which Mr. Collins in his little volume on 
Cicero, in " The Ancient Classics for English Eeaders," 
says that they "contained under this veil whatever faith 
in the Invisible and Eternal rested in the mind of an 
enlightened pagan." In this Mr. Collins is fully justified by 
what Cicero himself has said, although the character thus 
given to these mysteries is very different from that which 
was attributed to them by early Christian writers. They 
were to those pious but somewhat prejudiced theologists 
mysterious and pagan, and therefore horrible. 2 But Cicero 
declares in his dialogue with Atticus " De Legibus," written 
when he was fifty-five years old, in the prime of his intellect, 
that " of all the glories and divine gifts which your Athens 
has produced for the improvement of men, nothing surpasses 
these mysteries by which the harshness of our uncivilized life 
has been softened, and we have been lifted up to humanity ; 
and as they are called 'initia,'" by which aspirants were 
initiated, " so have we in truth found in them the seeds of 
a new life. Nor have we received from them only the means 

1 Quintilian, lib. x. ca. 1. 

2 Clemens of Alexandria, in his exhortation to the Geutiles, is very severe 
upoii the iniquities of these rites. "All evil be to him," he says, "who 
brought them into fashion, whether it was Dardanus, or Eetion the Thraciaii, 

VOL. I. F 



66 LIFE OF CICERO. 

of living with satisfaction, but also of dying with a better 
hope as to the future." l 

Of what took place with Cicero and Atticus at their 
introduction to the Eleusinian mysteries we know nothing. 
But it can hardly be that, with such memories running in his 
mind after thirty years, expressed in such language to the 
very friend who had then been his companion, they should 
not have been accepted by him as indicating the commence- 
ment of some great line of thought. The two doctrines 
which seem to mark most clearly the difference between 
the men whom we regard, the one as a pagan and the other 
as a Christian, are the belief in a future life and the duty of 
doing well by our neighbours. Here they are both indicated, 
the former in plain language and the latter in that assurance 
of the softening of the barbarity of uncivilized life, " quibus 
ex agresti immanique vita exculti ad humanitatem et mitigati 
sumus." 

Of the inner life of Cicero at this moment, how he ate, how 
he drank, with what accompaniment of slaves he lived, how 
he was dressed and how lodged we know very little. But 
we are told enough to be aware that he could not have 
travelled and studied as he did in Greece and Asia, without 
great expense. His brother Quintus was with him, so 
that cost, if not double, was greatly increased. Antiochus, 
Demetrius Syrus, Molo, Menippus and the others did not 



or Midas the Phrygian." The old story which he repeats as to Ceres and 
Proserpine may have been true, but he was altogether ignorant of the changes 
which the common sense of centuries had produced. 
1 De Legibus, lib. ii. c. xiv. 



HIS EDUCATION. 67 

give him their services for nothing. These were gentlemen 
of whom we know that they were anxious to carry their 
wares to the best market. And then he seems to have been 
welcomed wherever he went, as though travelling in some 
sort "en prince." No doubt he had brought with him the 
best introductions which Eome could afford ; but even with 
them a generous allowance must have been necessary, and 
this must have come from his father's pocket. 

As we go on, a question will arise as to Cicero's income 
and the sources whence it came. He asserts of himself that 
he was never paid for his services at the bar. To receive 
such payment was illegal, but was usual. He claims to have 
kept himself exempt from whatever meanness there may have 
been in so receiving such fees, exempt at any rate from the 
fault of having broken the law. He has not been believed. 
There is no evidence to convict him of falsehood, but he has 
not been believed because there have not been found palpable 
sources of income sufficient for an expenditure so great as 
that which we know to have been incident to the life he led. 
But we do not know what were his father's means. Seeing 
the nature of the education given to the lad, of the manner 
in which his future life was prepared for him from his earliest 
days, of the promise made to him from his boyhood of a 
career in the metropolis if he could make himself fit for it. 
of the advantages which costly travel afforded him, I think 
we have reason to suppose that the old Cicero was an opulent 
man, and that the house at Arpinum was no humble farm, or 
fuller's poor establishment. 



F 2 



CHAPTEE III. 

THE CONDITION OF ROME. 

IT is far from my intention to write a history of Eome 
during the Ciceronian period. Were I to attempt such a work, 
I should have to include the doings of Sertorius in Spain, of 
Lucullus and Pompey in the East, Caesar's ten years in Gaul, 
and the civil wars from the taking of Marseilles to the final 
battles of Thapsus and Munda. With very many of the great 
events which the period includes Cicero took but slight 
concern, so slight that we can hardly fail to be astonished 
when we find how little he had to say of them, he who ran 
through all the offices of the State, who was the chosen 
guardian of certain allied cities, who has left to us so large a 
mass of correspondence on public subjects, and who was essen- 
tially a public man for thirty-four years. But he was a public 
man who concerned himself personally with Eome rather 
than with the Eoman Empire. Home affairs and not foreign 
affairs were dear to him. To Caesar's great deeds in Gaul, 
we should have had from him almost no allusion, had not his 
brother Quintus been among Cassar's officers and his young 
friend Trebatius been confided by himself to Caesar's care. 
Of Pharsalia we only learn from him that in utter despair 
of heart he allowed himself to be carried to the war. Of the 



THE CONDITION OF ROME. 69 

proconsular governments throughout the Eoman empire we 
should not learn much from Cicero were it not that it has 
been shown to us by the trial of Verres how atrocious might 
be the conduct of a Eoman Governor, and, by the narratives 
of Cicero's own rule in Cilicia, how excellent. The history of 
the time has been written for modern readers by Merivale 
and Mommsen, with great research and truth as to facts, 
but, as I think, with some strong feeling. Now Mr. Froude 
has followed with his " Caesar," which might well have 
been called Anti-Cicero. All these in lauding, and the two 
latter in deifying the successful soldier, have I think dealt 
hardly with Cicero, attributing to his utterances more than 
they mean, doubting his sincerity, but seeing clearly the 
failure of his political efforts. With the great facts of the 
Eoman Empire as they gradually formed themselves from 
the fall of Carthage when the Empire began 1 to the establish- 
ment of Augustus when it was consummated, I do not pretend 
to deal, although by far the most momentous of them were 
crowded into the life of Cicero. But in order that I may, if 
possible, show the condition of his mind towards the Eepublic, 
that I may explain what it was that he hoped and why he 
hoped it, I must go back and relate in a few words what it 
was that Marius and Sulla had done for Eome. 

Of both these men all the doings with which history is 
greatly concerned were comprised within the early years of 
Cicero's life. Marius indeed was nearly fifty years of age 

1 B.C. 144. It was then that the foreign empire commenced, in ruling 
which the simplicity and truth of purpose and patriotism of the Republic 
were lost. 



70 LIFE OF CICERO. 

when his fellow townsman was born, and had become a 
distinguished soldier, and though born of humble parents 
had pushed himself to the Consulate. His quarrel with 
Sulla had probably commenced, springing from jealousy 
as to deeds done in the Jugurthine war. But it is not matter 
of much moment now that Marius had proved himself to be 
a good and hardy soldier, excepting in this, that by making 
himself a soldier in early life he enabled himself in his latter 
years to become the master of Rome. 

Sulla too was born thirty-two years before Cicero, a 
patrician of the bluest blood, and having gone, as we say, 
into public life, and having been elected Quaestor, became a 
soldier by dint of office, as a man with us may become head 
of the Admiralty. As Quaestor he was sent to join Marius in 
Africa, a few months before Cicero was born. Into his hands 
as it happened, not into those of Marius. Jugurtha was sur- 
rendered by his father-in-law, Bocchus, who thought thus to 
curry favour with the Romans. Thence came those inter- 
necine feuds in which some twenty-five years later all Rome 
was lying butchered. The cause of quarrelling between these 
two men, the jealousies which grew in the heart of the elder 
from the renewed successes of the younger, are not much to 
us now ; but the condition to which Rome had been brought, 
when two such men could scramble for the city and each cut 
the throats of the relatives, friends and presumed allies of the 
other, has to be inquired into by those who would understand 
what Rome had been, what it was, and what it was necessarily 
to become. 

When Cicero was of an age to begin to think of these 



THE CONDITION OF ROME. 71 

things, and had put on the "toga virilis," and girt himself 
with a sword to fight under the father of Pompey for the 
power of Borne against the Italian allies who were demanding 
citizenship, the quarrel was in truth rising to its bitterness. 
Marius and Sulla were on the same side in that war. But 
Marius had then not only been Consul, but had been six times 
Consul. And he had beaten the Teutons and the Cimbrians by 
whom Eomans had feared that all Italy would be occupied. 
What was not within the power of such a leader of soldiers ? 
And what else but a leader of soldiers could prevail when 
Italy and Rome, but for such a General, had been at the 
mercy of barbaric hordes, and when they had been compelled 
to make that General six times Consul ? 

Marius seems to have been no politician. He became a 
soldier and then a General, and because he was great as a 
soldier and General, the affairs of the State fell into his hands 
with very little effort. In the old days of Eome military 
power had been needed for defence, and successful defence 
had of course produced aggressive masterhood, and increased 
territory. When Hannibal, while he was still lingering in 
Italy, had been circumvented by the appearance of Scipio in 
Africa, and the Romans had tasted the increased magnificence 
of external conquest, the desire for foreign domination became 
stronger than that of native rule. From that time arms were 
in the ascendant rather than policy. Up to that time a Consul 
had to become a General because it was his business to look 
after the welfare of the State. After that time a man became 
a Consul in order that he might be a General. The toga was 
made to give way to the sword, and the noise of the Forum 



72 LIF% OF CICERO. 

to the trumpets. We, looking back now, can see that it 
must have been so, and we are prone to fancy that a wise 
man looking forward then might have read the future. In 
the days of Marius there was probably no man so wise. 
Csesar was the first to see it. Cicero would have seen it 
but that the idea was so odious to him, that he could not 
acknowledge to himself that it need be so. His life was 
one struggle against the coming evil, against the time in 
which brute force was to be made to dominate intellect and 
civilization. His " cedant arma togse " was a scream, an 
impotent scream, against all that Sulla had done or Caesar 
was about to do. The mischief had been effected years before 
his time, and had gone too far ahead to be arrested even by 
his tongue. Only in considering these things let us confess 
that Cicero saw what was good and what was evil, though 
he was mistaken in believing that the good was still within 
reach. 

Marius in his way was a Csesar, as a soldier undoubtedly 
a very efficient Csesar, having that great gift of ruling his 
own appetites which enables those who possess it to conquer 
the appetites of others. It may be doubted whether his 
quickness in stopping and overcoming the two great hordes 
from the north, the Teutons and the Cimbrians, was not equal 
in strategy to anything that Caesar accomplished in Gaul. 
It is probable that Csesar learned much of his tactics from 
studying the manoeuvres of Marius. But Marius was only a 
General. Though he became hot in Roman politics, audacious 
and confident, knowing how to use and how to disregard 
various weapons of political power as they had been handed 



THE CONDITION OF ROME. 73 

down by tradition and law, the "vetoes" and the auguries, and 
the official dignities, he used them, or disregarded them, in 
quest only of power for himself. He was able to perceive how 
vain was law in such a period as that in which he lived ; 
and that having risen by force of arms, he must by force of 
arms keep his place or lose his life. With him, at least, there 
was no idea of Eoman liberty, little probably of Eoman glory 
except so far as military glory and military power go together. 
Sulla was a man endowed with a much keener insight into 
the political condition of the world around him. To make a 
dash for power, as a dog might do, and. keep it in his clutch 
as a dog would, was enough for Marius. Sulla could see 
something of future events. He could understand that by 
reducing men around him to a low level he could make fast 
his own power over them, and that he could best do this by 
cutting off the heads of all who stood a little higher than 
their neighbours. He might thus produce tranquillity, and 
security to himself, and others. Some glimmer of an idea 
of an Augustan rule was present to him, and with the view 
of producing it he reestablished many of the usages of the 
Eepublic, not reproducing the liberty but the forms of liberty. 
It seems to have been his idea that a Sullan party might 
rule the Empire by adherence to these forms. I doubt if 
Marius had any fixed idea of government. To get the better 
of his enemies and then to grind them into powder under his 
feet, to seize rank and power and riches, and then to enjoy 
them, to sate his lust with blood and money and women, at 
last even with wine, and to feed his revenge by remembering 
the hard things which he was made to endure during the 



74 LIFE OF CICERO. 

period of his overthrow, this seems to have been enough for 
Marius. 1 With Sulla there was understanding that the 
Empire must be ruled, and that the old ways would be 
best if they could be made compatible with the newly 
concentrated power. 

The immediate effect upon Eome either from one or from 
the other, was nearly the same. In the year 87 B.C. Marius 
occupied himself in slaughtering the Sullan party, during 
which however Sulla escaped from Eome to the army of 
which he was selected as general and proceeded to Athens 
and the East with the object of conquering Mithridates. 
For, during these personal contests, the command of this 
expedition had been the chief bone of contention among 
them. Marius, who was by age unfitted, desired to obtain 
it in order that Sulla might not have it. In the next year, 
86 B.C., Marius died, being then Consul for the seventh 
time. Sulla was away in the East, and did not return till 
83 B.C. In the interval was that period of peace, fit for 
study of which Cicero afterwards spoke. "Triennium fere 



1 The reverses of fortune to which Marius was subjected, how he was 
buried up to his neck in the mud hiding in the marshes of Minturnse, how he 
would have been killed by the traitorous magistrates of that city but that he 
quelled the executioners by the nre of his eyes ; how he sat and glowered, a 
houseless exile, among the ruins of Carthage, all which things happened 
to him while he was running from the partisans of Sulla, are among the 
picturesque episodes of history. There is a tragedy called the Wounds of 
Civil War, written by Lodge, who was born some eight years before Shake- 
speare, in which the story of Marius is told with some exquisite poetry, but 
also with some ludicrous additions. The Gaul who is hired to kill Marius, 
but is frightened by his eyes, talks bad French mingled with bad English, 
and calls on Jesus in his horror ! 



THE CONDITION OF HOME. 75 

fuit urbs sine armis." l Cicero was then twenty-two or 
twenty-three years old, and must well have understood from 
his remembrance of the Marian massacres what it was to 
have the city embroiled by arms. It was not that men were 
fighting, but that they were simply being killed at the plea- 
sure of the slaughterer. Then Sulla came back 83 B.C., 
when Cicero was twenty-four, and if Marius had scourged 
the city with rods he scourged it with scorpions. It was the 
city in truth that was scourged, and not simply the hostile 
faction. Sulla began by proscribing 520 citizens, declaring 
that he had included in his list all that he remembered, and 
that those forgotten should be added on another day. The 
numbers were gradually raised to 4,700 ! Nor did this 
merely mean that those named should be caught and killed 
by some miscalled officers of justice. 2 All the public was 
armed against the wretched, and any who should protect 
them were also doomed to death. This, however, might 
have been comparatively inefficacious to inflict the amount 
of punishment intended by Sulla. Men generally do not 
specially desire to imbrue their hands in the blood of other 
men. Unless strong hatred be at work the ordinary man, 
even the ordinary Koman, will hardly rise up and slaughter 
another for the sake of the employment. But if lucre be 
added to blood, then blood can be made to flow copiously. 
This was what Sulla did. Not only was the victim's life 
proscribed, but his property was proscribed also. And the 

1 Brutus, ca. xc. 

2 Fionas tells us that there were 2,000 senators and knights, but that any 
one was allowed to kill just whom he would. " Quis autem illos potest com- 
putare quos in erbe passim quisquis voluit occidit," lib. iii., ca. 21. 



76 LIFE OF CICERO. 

man who busied himself in carrying out the great butcher's 

business assiduously, ardently, and unintermittingly, was 

rewarded by the property so obtained. Two talents l was 

to be the fee for mere assassination ; but the man who knew 

how to carry on well the work of an informer could earn 

many talents. It was thus that fortunes were made in the last 

days of Sulla. It was not only those 520 who were named for 

killing. They were but the firstlings of the flock, the few 

victims selected before the real workmen understood how 

valuable a trade proscription and confiscation might be made. 

Plutarch tells us how a quiet gentleman walking, as was his 

custom, in the Forum, one who took no part in politics, saw 

his own name one day on the list. He had an Alban villa, 

and at once knew that his villa had been his ruin. He had 

hardly read the list and had made his exclamation before 

he was slaughtered. Such was the massacre of Sulla, coming 

with an interval of two or three years after those of Marius, 

between which was the blessed time in which Eome was 

without arms. In the time of Marius Cicero was too young, 

and of no sufficient importance on account of his birth or 

parentage, to fear anything. Nor is it probable that Marius 

would have turned against his townsmen. When Sulla's 

turn came Cicero, though not absolutely connected with the 

Dictator, was, so to say, on his side in politics. In going 

back even to this period we may use the terms Liberals and 

Conservatives for describing the two parties. Marius was 

1 About 4872. 10s. In Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities 
the Attic talent is given as being worth 243Z. 15s. Mommsen quotes the price 
as 12,000 denarii, which would amount to about the same sum. 



THE CONDITION OF ROME. 77 

for the people, that is to say, he was opposed to the rule 
of the oligarchy, dispersed the senate, and loved to feel that 
his own feet were on the necks of the nobility. Of liberty, 
or rights, or popular institutions he recked nothing, but 
not the less was he supposed to be on the people's side. 
Sulla, on the other hand, had been born a patrician, and 
affected to preserve the old traditions of oligarchic rule. 
And, indeed, though he took all the power of the State into 
his own hands, he did restore and for a time preserve these 
old traditions. It must be presumed that there was at his 
heart something of love for old Koine. The proscriptions 
began towards the end of the year 82 B.C., and were con- 
tinued through eight or nine fearful months, up to the 
beginning of June, 81 B.C. A day was fixed at which 
there should be no more slaughtering, no more slaughtering 
that is, without special order in each case, and no more con- 
fiscation, except such as might be judged necessary by those 
who had not as yet collected their prey from past victims. 
Then Sulla as Dictator set himself to work to reorganise 
the old laws. There should still be Consuls and Praetors, 
but with restricted powers, lessened almost down to 
nothing. It seems hard to gather what was exactly the 
Dictator's scheme as the future depositary of power when 
he should himself have left the scene. He did increase the 
privileges of the Senate, but thinking of the Senate of Eome 
as he must have thought of it, esteeming those old men as 
lowly as he must have esteemed them, he could hardly have 
intended that imperial power should be maintained by 
dividing it among them. He certainly contemplated 'no 



78 LIFE OF CICERO. 

follower to himself, no heir to his -power, as Caesar did. 
When he had been practically Dictator about three years, 
though he did not continue the use of the objectionable name, 
he resigned his rule and walked down, as it were from his 
throne, into private life. I know nothing in history more re- 
markable than Sulla's resignation ; and yet the writers who 
have dealt with his name give no explanation of it. Plutarch, 
his biographer, expresses wonder that he should have been 
willing to descend to private life, and that he who made so 
many enemies should have been able to do so with security. 
Cicero says nothing of it. He had probably left Koine 
before it occurred, and did not return till after Sulla's death. 
It seems to have been accepted as being in no especial way 
remarkable. 1 At his own demand the plenary power of 
Dictator had been given to him, power to do all as he 
liked without reference either to the Senate or to the people, 
and with an added proviso that he should keep it as long as 
he thought fit and lay it down when it pleased him. He did 
lay it down, flattering himself probably that, as he had done 
his work, he would walk out from his dictatorship like some 
Camillus of old. There had been no dictator in Borne for 
more than a century and a quarter, not since the time of 
Hannibal's great victories; and the old dictatorships lasted 
but for a few months or weeks, after which the Dictator 
having accomplished the special task, threw up his office. 

1 Suetonius speaks of his death. Florus mentions the proscriptions and 
abdication. Velleius Paterculus is eloquent in describing the horrors of the 
massacres and confiscation. Dio Cassius refers again and again to the Sullan 
cruelty. But none of them give a reason for the abdication of Sulla. 



THE CONDITION OF ROME. 79 

Sulla now affected to do the same ; and Rome after the inter- 
val of three years, accepted the resignation in the old spirit. 
It was natural to them, though only by tradition, that a 
Dictator should resign, so natural that it required no special 
wonder. The salt of the Roman Constitution was gone, but 
the remembrance of the savour of it was still sweet to the 
minds of the Romans. 

It seems certain that no attempt was made to injure Sulla 
when he ceased to be nominally at the head of the army ; but 
it is probable that he did not so completely divest himself of 
power as to be without protection. In the year after his 
abdication he died, at the age of sixty-one, apparently 
strong as regards general health, but, if Plutarch's story be 
true, affected with a terrible cutaneous disease. 

Modern writers have spoken of Sulla as though they 
would fain have praised him if they dared, because in spite 
of his demoniac cruelty, he recognised the expedience of 
bringing the affairs of the Republic again into order. Mid- 
dleton calls him the "only man in history in whom the 
odium of the most barbarous cruelties was extinguished by 
the glory of his great acts." Mommsen, laying the blame 
of the proscriptions on the head of the oligarchy, speaks of 
Sulla as being either a sword or a pen in the service of the 
State, as a sword or a pen would be required, and declares 
that in regard to the total " absence of political selfishness, 
although it is true in this respect only, Sulla deserves to 
be named side by side with Washington." 1 To us at present 

1 Vol. iii. p. 386. I quote from Mr. Dickson's translation, as I do not read 
German. 



80 LIFE OF CICERO. 

who are endeavouring to investigate the sources and the 
nature of Cicero's character, the attributes of this man would 
be but of little moment, were it not that Cicero was probably 
Cicero because Sulla had been Sulla. Horrid as the pro- 
scriptions and confiscations were to Cicero, and his opinion 
of them was expressed plainly enough when it was dangerous 
to express them, 1 still it was apparent to him that the cause 
of order, what we may call the best chance for the Eepublic, 
lay with the Senate and with the old traditions and laws 
of Eome, in the re-establishment of which Sulla had em- 
ployed himself. Of these institutions Mommsen speaks 
with a disdain which we now cannot but feel to be justified. 
" On the Roman oligarchy of this period," he says, " no 
judgment can be passed save one of inexorable and remorse- 
less condemnation ; and, like everything connected with it, 
the Sullan constitution is involved in that condemnation." 2 
We have to admit that the salt had gone out from it, and 
that there was no longer left any savour by which it could 
be preserved. But the German historian seems to err some- 
what in this, as have also some modern English historians, 
that they have not sufficiently seen that the men of the day had 
not the means of knowing all that they, the historians, know. 
Sulla and his Senate thought that by massacring the Marian 
faction they had restored everything to an equilibrium. 
Sulla himself seems to have believed that when the thing 

1 In defending Roscius Amerinus, while Sulla was still in power, he speaks 
of the Sullan massacres as "pugna Cannensis," a slaughter as foul, as dis- 
graceful, as bloody as had been the defeat at Cannae. 

3 Mommsen, vol. iii. p. 385. 



THE CONDITION OF ROME. 81 

was accomplished Eome would go on, and grow in power 
and prosperity as she had grown, without other reforms than 
those which he had initiated. There can be no doubt that 
many of the best in Rome, the best in morals, the best in 
patriotism, and the best in erudition, did think that with 
the old forms the old virtue would come back. Pompey 
thought so, and Cicero. Cato thought so, and Brutus. 
Cresar, when he came to think about it, thought the reverse. 
But even now, to us looking back with so many things made 
clear to us, with all the convictions which prolonged success 
produces, it is doubtful whether some other milder change, 
some such change as Cicero would have advocated, might 
not have prevented the tyranny of Augustus, the mysteries 
of Tiberius, the freaks of Caligula, the folly of Claudius, and 
the madness of Nero. 

It is an uphill task, that of advocating the cause of a 
man who has failed. The Caesars of the world are they who 
make interesting stories. That Cicero failed in the great 
purpose of his life has to be acknowledged. He had studied 
the history of his country and was aware that hitherto 
the world had produced nothing so great as Eoman power ; 
and he knew that Eome had produced true patriotism. 
Her Consuls, her Censors, her Tribunes, and her Generals 
had as a rule been true to Eome, serving their country, at 
any rate till of late years, rather than themselves. And 
he believed that liberty had existed in Rome though no- 
where else. It would be well if we could realise the idea of 
liberty which Cicero entertained. Liberty was very dear 
to him, dear to him not only as enjoying it himself, but 

VOL. I. G 



82 LIFE OF CICERO. 

as a privilege for the enjoyment of others. But it 
was only the liberty of a few. Half the population of 
the Roman cities were slaves, and m Cicero's time the 
freedom of the city, which he regarded as necessary to 
liberty, belonged only to a small proportion of the popula- 
tion of Italy. It was the liberty of a small privileged class 
for which he was anxious. That a Sicilian should be free 
under a Roman Proconsul, as a Roman citizen was entitled 
to be, was abhorrent to his doctrine. The idea of cosmopoli- 
tan freedom, an idea which exists with us but is not 
common to very many even now, had not as yet been 
born ; that care for freedom which springs from a desire 
to do to others as we would that they should do to us. It 
required Christ to father that idea, and Cicero, though he 
was nearer to Christianity than any who had yet existed, 
had not reached it. But this liberty, though it was but 
of a few, was so dear to him, that he spent his life in an 
endeavour to preserve it. The kings had been expelled 
from Rome because they had trampled on liberty. Then 
came the Republic which we know to have been at its best 
no more than an oligarchy. But still it was founded on 
the idea that everything should be done by the votes 
of the free people. For many years everything was done 
by the votes of the free people. Under what inducements 
they had voted is another question. Clients were subject 
to their patrons and voted as they were told. We have 
heard of that even in England, where many of us still 
think that such a way of voting is far from objectionable. 
Perhaps compulsion was sometimes used, a sort of 



THE CONDITION OF ROME. 83 

" rattening " by which large bodies were driven to the poll 
to carry this or the other measure. Simple eloquence pre- 
vailed with some, and with others flattery. Then corruption 
became rampant, as was natural, the rich buying the votes 
of the poor ; and votes were bought in various ways, by 
cheap food as well as by money, by lavish expenditure in 
games, by promises of land, and other means of bribery 
more or less overt. This was bad of course. Every freeman 
should have given a vote according to his conscience. But 
in what country, the millennium not having yet arrived in 
any, has this been achieved ? Though voting in England 
has not always been pure, we have not wished to do away 
with the votes of freemen and to submit everything to 
personal rule. Nor did Cicero. 

He knew that much was bad, and had himself seen 
many things that were very evil. He had lived through 
the dominations of Harms and Sulla, and had seen the old 
practices of Roman government brought down to the 
pretence of traditional forms. But still, so he thought, 
there was life left in the old forms if they could be 
revivified by patriotism, labour and intelligence. It was 
the best that he could imagine for the State, infinitely 
better than the chance of falling into the bloody hands 
of one Marius and one Sulla after another. Mommsen tells 
us that nothing could be more rotten than the condition 
of oligarchical government into which Eome had fallen, 
and we are inclined to agree with Mommsen because we 
have seen what followed. But that Cicero, living and see- 
ing it all as a present spectator, should have hoped better 

G. 2 



84 LIFE OF CICERO. 

things, should not I think cause us to doubt either Cicero's 
wisdom or his patriotism. I cannot but think that had 
I been a Eoman of those days I should have preferred 
Cicero with his memories of the past to Caesar with his 
ambition for the future. 

Looking back from our standing point of to-day we know 
how great Eome was, infinitely greater as far as power 
is concerned than anything else which the world has pro- 
duced. It came to pass that " Urbis et orbis " was not 
a false boast. Gradually growing from the little nest of 
robbers established on the banks of the Tiber, the people 
of Eome learned how to spread their arms over all the 
known world, and to conquer and rule while they drew 
to themselves all that the ingenuity and industry of other 
people had produced. To do this there must have been 
not only courage and persistence, but intelligence, patriotism, 
and superior excellence in that art of combination of which 
government consists. But yet, when we look back, it is 
hard to say when were the palmy days of Eome. When did 
those virtues shine by which her power was founded. When 

was that wisdom best exhibited from which came her 


capacity for ruling. Not in the time of her early kings 

whose mythic virtues, if they existed, were concerned but 
in small matters, for the Eome of the kings claimed a 
jurisdiction extending as yet but a few miles from the city. 
And from the time of their expulsion, Eome, though she was 
rising in power, was rising slowly, and through such difficulties 
that the reader of history, did he not know the future, 
would think from time to time that the day of her destruction 



THE CONDITION OF ROME. 85 

had come upon her. Not when Brennus was at Eome with 
his Gauls, a hundred and twenty-five years after the ex- 
pulsion of the kings, could Eome be said to have been 
great ; nor when fifty or sixty years afterwards, the Eoman 
army, the only army which Eome then possessed, had 
to lay down its arms in the Caudine Forks and pass under 
the Samnite yoke. Then when the Samnite wars were 
ended, and Eome was mistress in Italy, mistress after all 
of no more than Southern Italy, the Punic wars began. It 
could hardly have been during that long contest with 
Carthage which was carried on for nearly fifty years that 
the palmy days of Eome were at their best. Hannibal seems 
always to be the master. Trebia, Thrasymene and Cannae, 
year after year, threaten complete destruction to the State. 
Then comes the great Scipio ; and, no doubt, if we must mark 
an era of Eoman greatness, it would be that of the battle 
of Zama and the submission of Carthage, 201 years before 
Christ. But with Scipio there springs up the idea of personal 
ambition. And in the Macedonian and Greek wars that 
follow, though the arm of Eome is becoming stronger every 
day and her shoulders broader, there is already the 
glamour of her decline in virtue. Her dealings with Antio- 
chus, with Pyrrhus and with the Achseans, though successful, 
were hardly glorious. Then came the two Gracchi, and the 
reader begins to doubt whether the glory of the Eepublic is 
not already over. They demanded impossible reforms, 
by means as illegal as they were impossible, and were both 
killed in popular riots. The war with Jugurtha followed 
in which the Romans were for years unsuccessful, and 



86 LIFE OF CICERO. 

during which Gerrnan hordes from the north, rushed into 
Gaul and destroyed an army of 80,000 Kornans. This 
brings us to Marius and to Sulla, of whom we have 

O * 

already spoken, and to that period of Eoman politics, 
which the German historian describes as being open 
to no judgment " save one of inexorable and remorseless 
condemnation." 

But in truth the history of every people and every nation will 
be subject to the same criticism if it be regarded with the 
same severity. In all that man has done as yet in the way 
of government the seeds of decay are apparent when looked 
back upon from an age in advance. The period of Queen 
Elizabeth was very great to us, yet by what dangers were 
we enveloped in her days ! But for a storm at sea we might 
have been subjected to Spain. By what a system of false- 
hood and petty tyrannies were we governed through the reigns 
of James I. and Charles I. ! What periods of rottenness and 
danger there have been since ! How little glorious was the 
reign of Charles II., how full of danger that of William ! 
how mean those of the four Georges, with the dishonesty of 
ministers such as Walpole and Newcastle ! And to-day, are 
there not many who are telling us that we are losing the liber- 
ties which our forefathers got for us, and that no judgment 
can be passed on us " save one of inexorable and remorseless 
condemnation " ? We are a great nation and the present 
threatenings are probably vain. Nevertheless the seeds of 
decay are no doubt inherent in our policies and our practices, 
so manifestly inherent that future historians will pronounce 
upon them with certainty. 



THE CONDITION OF EOME. 87 

But Cicero, not having the advantage of distance, having 
simply in his mind the knowledge of the greatness which had 
been achieved, and in his heart a true love for the country 
which had achieved it and which was his own, encouraged 
himself to think that the good might be recovered and the bad 
eliminated. Marius and Sulla, Pompey also towards the end 
of his career if I can read his character rightly, Caesar, and 
of course Augustus, being all destitute of scruple, strove to 
acquire, each for himself, the power which the weak hands of 
the Senate were unable to grasp. However much, or however 
little, the country of itself might have been to any of them, it 
seemed good to him, whether for the country's sake or for 
his own, that the rule should be in his own hands. Each 
had the opportunity, and each used it or tried to use it. 
With Cicero there is always present the longing to restore 
the power to the old constitutional possessors of it. So much 
is admitted even by his bitter enemies ; and I am sometimes 
at a loss whether to wonder most that a man of letters, dead 
two thousand years ago, should have enemies so bitter or a 
friend so keenly in earnest about him as I am. Cicero was 
aware, quite as well as any who lived then, if he did not 
see the matter clearer even than any others, that there was 
much that was rotten in the State. Men who had been 
murderers on behalf of Marius, and then others who had 
murdered on behalf of Sulla, among whom that Catiline of 
whom we have to speak presently had been one, were not 
apt to settle themselves down as quiet citizens. The laws had 
been set aside. Even the law-courts had been closed. Sulla 



88 LIFE OF CICERO. 

had been law, and the closets of his favourites had been the 
law-courts. Senators had been cowed and obedient. The 
Tribunes had only been mock Tribunes. Eome, when Cicero 
began his public life, was still trembling. The Consuls of 
the day were men chosen at Sulla's command. The army 
was Sulla's army. The courts were now again opened by 
Sulla's permission. The day fixed by Sulla when murderers 
might no longer murder, or at any rate should not be paid 
for murdering, had arrived. There was not, one would say, 
much hope for good things. But Sulla had reproduced the 
signs of order, and the best hope lay in that direction. 
Consuls, Praetors, Quaestors, yEdiles, even Tribunes, were still 
there. Perhaps it might be given to him, to Cicero, to 
strengthen the hands of such officers. At any rate there was 
no better course open to him by which he could serve his 
country. 

The heaviest accusation brought against Cicero charges him 
with being insincere to the various men with whom he was 
brought in contact in carrying out the purpose of his life ; and 
he has also been accused of having changed his purpose. It 
has been alleged that having begun life as a democrat he 
went over to the aristocracy as soon as he had secured his 
high office of State. As we go on it will be my object to 
show that he was altogether sincere in his purpose, that he 
never changed his political idea, and that in these deviations 
as to men and as to means, whether for instance he was 
ready to serve Caesar or to oppose him, he was guided even 
in the insincerity of his utterances, by the sincerity of his 



THE CONDITION OF ROME. 89 

purpose. I think that I can remember even in Great Britain, 
even in the days of Queen Victoria, men sitting cheek by jowl 
on the same Treasury Bench who have been very bitter to 
each other in Parliament; and friends, who have come to 
speak of each other with anything but friendly words. With 
us fidelity in friendship is happily a virtue. In Eome 
expedience governed everything. All I claim for Cicero 
is that he was more sincere than others around him. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HIS EAELY PLEADINGS, SEXTUS EOSCIUS AMEEINUS, HIS 

INCOME. 

WE now come to the beginning of the work of Cicero's life. 
BC 80 This at first consisted in his employment as an 
aetat 27. a( j v ocate, from which he gradually rose into 
public or political occupation, as so often happens with 
a successful barrister in our time. We do not know 
with absolute certainty even in what year Cicero began 
his pleadings, or in what cause. It may probably have 
been in 81 B.C. when he was twenty-five or in his 
twenty-sixth year. Of the pleadings of which we know the 
particulars, that in the defence of Sextus Eoscius Amerinus, 
which took place undoubtedly in the year 80 B.C. setat 
twenty-seven, was probably the earliest. As to that 
we have his speech nearly entire,-as we have also one for 
Publius Quintius which has generally been printed first 
among the orator's works. It has, however, I think been 
made clear that that spoken for Sextus Eoscius came before 
it. It is certain that there had been others before either 
of them. In that for Sextus he says that he had never 



PRO SEXTO ROSCIO. 91 

spoken before in any public cause, 1 such as was the accusa- 
tion in which he was now engaged, from which the inference 
has to be made that he had been engaged in private causes ; 
and in that for Quintius he declares that there was wanting 
to him in that matter an aid which he had been accustomed 
to enjoy in others. 2 No doubt he had tried his 'prentice 
hand in cases of less importance. That of these two the 
defence of Sextus Eoscius came first is also to be found in 
his own words. More than once in pleading for Quintius 
he speaks of the proscriptions and confiscations of Sulla as 
evils then some time past. These were brought nominally 
to a close in June 81 ; but it has been supposed by those 
who have placed this oration first that it was spoken in 
that very year. This seems to have been impossible. "I 
am most unwilling," says he, "to call to mind that subject 
the very memory of which should be wiped out from our 
thoughts." 3 When the tone of the two speeches is com- 
pared it will become evident that that for Sextus Eoscius 
was spoken the first. It was, as I have said, spoken in 
his twenty-seventh year B.C. 80. the year after the pro- 
scription lists had been closed, when Sulla was still Dictator, 



1 Pro Sexto Roscio, ca. xxi. " Quod antea causam publicam nullam dixerim." 
He says also in the Brutus, ca. xc., " Itaque prima causa publica, pro Sex 
Eoscio dicta." By "publica causa" he means a criminal accusation in 
distinction from a civil action. 

2 Pro Public Quintio, ca. i. " Quod mihi consuevit in ceteris causis esse 
adjumento, id quoque in hac causa deficit." 

3 Pro Public Quintio, ca. xxi. "Nolo earn rem commemorando renovare, 
cujus omnino rei memoriam omnem tolli fnnditus ac deleri arbitror 
oportere." 



92 LIFE OF CICERO. 

and when the sales of confiscated goods though no longer 
legal were still carried on under assumed authority. As 
to such violation of Sulla's own enactment Cicero excuses 
the Dictator in this very speech, likening him to Great Jove 
the Thunderer. Even " Jupiter Optimus Maximus," as he is 
whose nod the heavens, the earth and seas obey, even he 
cannot so look after his numerous affairs but what the winds 
and the storms will be too strong sometimes, or the heat too 
great, or the cold too bitter. If so how can we wonder that 
Sulla, who has to rule the State, to govern in fact the world, 
should not be able himself to see to everything? Jove 
probably found it convenient not to see many things. Such 
must certainly have been the case with Sulla. 

I will venture, as other biographers have done before, to 
tell the story of Sextus Eoscius of Amerina at some length 
because it is in itself a tale of powerful romance, mysterious, 
grim, betraying guilt of the deepest dye, misery most pro- 
found, and audacity unparalleled ; because in a word it is as 
interesting as any novel that modern fiction has produced; 
and also I will tell it because it lets in a flood of light upon 
the condition of Eome at the time. Our hair is made to 
stand on end when we remember that men had to pick their 
steps in such a State as this, and to live if it were possible, 
and, if not, then to be ready to die. We come in upon the 
fag end of the proscription and see, not the bloody wreath of 
Sulla as he triumphed on his Marian foes, not the cruel 
persecution of the ruler determined to establish his order of 
things by slaughtering every foe ; but the necessary accom- 
paniments of such ruthless deeds, those attendant villanies 



PRO SEXTO ROSCIO. 93 

for which the Jupiter Optimus Maximus of the day had 
neither ears nor eyes. If in history we can ever get a 
glimpse at the real life of the people, it is always more 
interesting than any account of the great facts however 
grand. 

The Kalends of June had been fixed by Sulla as the day 
on which the slaughter legalized by the proscriptions should 
cease. In the September following an old gentleman named 
Sextus Eoscius was murdered in the streets of Eome as he 
was going home from supper one night, attended by two 
slaves. By whom he was murdered probably more than 
one or two knew then, but nobody knows now. He was 
a man of reputation, well acquainted with the Metelluses and 
Messalas of the day, and passing rich. His name had been 
down on no proscription list, for he had been a friend of 
Sulla's friends. He was supposed when he was murdered to 
be worth about six million of sesterces, or something between 
fifty and sixty thousand pounds of our money. Though there 
was at that time much money in Eome this amounted to 
wealth ; and though we cannot say who murdered the man, 
we may feel sure that he was murdered for his money. 

Immediately on his death his chattels were seized and 
sold, or divided probably without being sold, including 
his slaves, in whom as with every rich Eoman much of his 
wealth was invested. And his landed estates, his farms of 
which he had many, were also divided. As to the actual 
way in which this was done we are left much in the dark. 
Had the name of Sextus Eoscius been on one of the lists, 
even though the list would then have been out of date, we 



94 LIFE OF CICERO. 

could have understood that it should have been so. Jupiter 
Optimus Maximus could not see everything, and great 
advantages were taken. We must only suppose that things 
were so much out of order that they who had been accustomed 
to seize upon the goods of the proscribed were able to stretch 
their hands so as to grasp almost anything that came in their 
way. They could no longer procure a rich man's name to be 
put down on the list, but they could pretend that it had been 
put down. At any rate certain persons seized and divided 
the chattels of the murdered man as though he had been 
proscribed. 

Old Roscius when he was killed had one son of whom we 
are told that he lived always in the country at Ameria, 
looking after his father's farms, never visiting the Capital 
which was distant from Ameria something under fifty miles, 
a rough, uncouth, and probably honest man, one at any 
rate to whom the ways of the city were unknown, and who 
must have been but partially acquainted with the doings of 
the time. 1 As we read the story we feel that very much 
depends on the character of this man, and we are aware that 
our only description of him comes from his own advocate. 
Cicero would probably say much which, though beyond 
the truth, could not be absolutely refuted ; but would state as 
facts nothing that was absolutely false. Cicero describes him 



1 Pro Roscio, ca. xlix. Cicero says of him that he would be sure to sup- 
pose that anything would have been done according to law of which he 
should be told that it was done by Sulla's order. " Putat homo imperitus 
morum, agricola et rusticus, ista omnia, quse vos per Sullam gesta esse dicitis, 
more, lege, jure gentium facta." 



PRO SEXTO ROSCIO. 95 

as a middle-aged man, who never left his farm, doing his duty 
well by his father as whose agent he acted on the land, a 
simple, unambitious, ignorant man, to whom one's sympathies 
are due rather than our antipathy, because of his devotion to 
agriculture. He was now accused of having murdered his 
father. The accusation was conducted by one Erucius, who 
in his opening speech, the speech made before that by 
Cicero, had evidently spoken ill of rural employments. 
Then Cicero reminds him and the judges, and the Court, how 
greatly agriculture had been honoured in the old days, when 
Consuls were taken from the ploughs. The imagination, 
however, of the reader pictures to itself a man who could 
hardly have been a Consul at any time, one silent, lonely, 
uncouth, and altogether separate from the pleasant inter- 
courses of life. Erucius had declared of him that he never 
took part in any festivity. Cicero uses this to show that he 
was not likely to have been tempted by luxury to violence. 
Old Roscius had had two sons, of whom he had kept one with 
him in Eome, the one probably whose society had been 
dearest to him. He, however, had died, and our Roscius, 
Sextus Roscius Amerinus as he came to be called when he 
was made famous by the murder, was left on one of the farms 
down in the country. The accusation would probably not 
have been made, had he not been known to be a man sullen, 
silent, rough, and unpopular ; as to whom such a murder 
might be supposed to be credible. 

Why should any accusation have been made unless there 
was clear evidence as to guilt ? That is the first question 
which presents itself. This son received no benefit from his 



96 LIFE OF CICERO. 

father's death. He had in fact been absolutely beggared by it, 
had lost the farm, the farming utensils, every slave in the 
place, all of which had belonged to his father and not to 
himself. They had been taken and divided ; taken by per- 
sons called "Sectores," informers or sequestrators who took 
possession of and sold, or did not sell, confiscated goods. 
Such men in this case had pounced down upon the goods of 
the murdered man at once and swallowed them all up, not 
leaving an acre or a slave to our Eoscius. Cicero tells us 
who divided the spoil among them. There were two other 
Eosciuses, distant relatives probably, both named Titus ; 
Titus Eoscius Magnus who sojourned in Eome, and who seems 
to have exercised the trade of informer and assassin during 
the proscriptions, and Titus Eoscius Capito who when at home 
lived at Ameria, but of whom Cicero tells us that he had 
become an apt pupil of the other during this affair. They had 
got large shares, but they shared also with one Chrysogonus, 
the freedman and favourite of Sulla, who did the dirty 
work for Jupiter Optimus Maximus, when Jupiter Optimus 
Maximus had not time to do it himself. We presume that 
Chrysogonus had the greater part of the plunder. As to 
Capito, the apt pupil, we are told again and again that he got 
three farms for himself. 

Again it is necessary to say that all these facts come from 
Cicero who, in accordance with the authorised practice of 
barristers, would scruple at saying nothing which he found 
in his instructions. How instructions were conveyed to an 
advocate in those days we do not quite know. There was no 
system of attorneys. But the story was probably made out 



PRO SEXTO ROSCIO. 97 

for the "patronus" or advocate by an underling, and in 
some way prepared for him. That which was thus prepared 
he exaggerated as the case might seem to require. It has to 
be understood of Cicero that he possessed great art and, no 
doubt, great audacity in such exaggeration ; in regard to 
which we should certainly not bear very heavily upon him 
now unless we are prepared to bear more heavily upon those 
who do the same thing in our own more enlightened days. 
But Cicero, even as a young man, knew his business much 
too well to put forward statements which could be disproved. 
The accusation came first ; then the speech in defence ; 
after that the evidence, which was offered only on the side of 
the accuser and which was subject to cross-examination. 
Cicero would have no opportunity of producing evidence. 
He was thus exempted from the necessity of proving his 
statements, but was subject to have them all disproved. I 
think we may take it for granted that the property of the 
murdered man was divided as he tells us. 

If that was so, why should any accusation have been 
made ? Our Sextus seems to have been too much crushed 
by the dangers of his position to have attempted to get back 
any part of his father's wealth. He had betaken himself to 
the protection of a certain noble lady, one Metella, whose 
family had been his father's friends, and by her and her 
friends the defence was no doubt managed. " You have my 
farms," he is made to say by his advocate. " I live on the 
charity of another. I abandon everything because I am placid 
by nature, and because it must be so. My house which is 
closed to me, is open to you. I endure it. You have possessed 

VOL. I. H 



98 LIFE OF CICERO. 

yourself of ray whole establishment. I have not one single 
slave. I suffer all this and feel that I must suffer it. What 
do you want more ? Why do you persecute me further ? In 
what do you think that I shall hurt you? How do I in- 
terfere with you ? In wluat do I oppose you ? Is it your 
wish to kill a man for the sake of plunder ? You have your 
plunder. If for the sake of hatred, what hatred can you feel 
against him of whose land you have taken possession before 
you had even known him ? " l Of all this which is the advo- 
cate's appeal to pity we may believe as little as we please. 
Cicero is addressing the judge, and desires only an acquittal. 
But the argument shows that no overt act in quest of resti- 
tution had as yet been made. Nevertheless Chrysogonus 
feared such action, and had arranged with the two Tituses 
that something should be clone to prevent it. What are we 
to think of the condition of a city in which not only could a 
man be murdered for his wealth walking home from supper ; 
that indeed might happen in London if there existed the 
means of getting at the man's money when the man was 
dead ; but in which such a plot could be concerted in order 
that the robbery might be consummated? "We have murdered 
the man and taken his money under the false plea that his 
goods had been confiscated. Friends we find are interfering ; 
these Metellas and Metelluses probably. There is a son 
who is the natural heir. Let us say that he killed his own 
father. The courts of law which have only just been reopened 
since the dear days of proscription disorder and confiscation 



1 Pro Sexto lloscio, ca. 1. 



PRO SEXTO ROSCIO. 99 

will hardly yet be alert enough to acquit a man in opposition 
to the Dictator's favourite. Let us get him convicted, and as 
a parricide, sewn up alive in a bag and thrown into the 
river," as some of us have perhaps seen cats drowned, for 
such was the punishment ; " and then he at least will not dis- 
turb us." It must have thus been that the plot was arranged. 
It was a plot so foul that nothing could be fouler ; but not 
the less was it carried out persistently with the knowledge 
and the assistance of many. Erucius, the accuser, who seems 
to have been put forward on the part of Chrysogonus, asserted 
that the man had caused his father to be murdered because 
of hatred. The father was going to disinherit the son, and 
therefore the son murdered the father. In this there might 
have been some probability had there been any evidence of 
such an intention on the father's part. But there was none. 
Cicero declares that the father had never thought of disin- 
heriting his son. There had been no quarrel, no hatred. 
This had been assumed as a reason, falsely. There was 
in fact no cause for such a deed. Nor was it possible that 
the son should have done it. The father was killed in 
Rome, when, as was evident, the son was fifty miles off. 
He never left his farm. Erucius, the accuser, had said and 
had said truly, that Eome was full of murderers. 1 But who 
was the most likely to have employed such a person, this 
rough husbandman who had no intercourse with Eome, who 
knew no one there, who knew little of Eoman ways, who had 

1 Pro Sexto Koscio, ca. xxix. " Ejusmodi tempus erat, inquit, ut homines 
vulgo impune occiderentur. " 

H 2 



100 LIFE OF CICERO. 

nothing to get by the murder when committed, or they who 
had long been concerned with murderers, who knew Rome, 
and who were now found to have the property in their hands ? 
The two slaves who had been with the old man when he 
was killed, surely they might tell something ? Here there 
comes out incidentally the fact that slaves when they were 
examined as witnesses were tortured, quite as a matter of 
course, so that their evidence might be extracted. This is 
spoken of with no horror by Cicero, nor, as far as I can 
remember, by other Roman writers. It was regarded as an 
established rule of life that a slave if brought into a court of 
law should be made to tell the truth by such appliances. 
This was so common that one is tempted to hope and al- 
most to suppose that the " Question " was not ordinarily 
administered with circumstances of extreme cruelty. We 
hear, indeed, of slaves having their liberty given them in 
order that being free they may not be forced by torture 
to tell the truth ; l but had the cruelty been of the nature de- 
scribed by Scott in " Old Mortality," when the poor preacher's 
limbs were mangled, I think we should have heard more of 
it. Nor was the torture always applied; but only when the 
expected evidence was not otherwise forthcoming. Cicero 
explains in the little dialogue given below how the thing was 
carried on. 2 " You had better tell the truth now, my friend ; 

1 Pro T. A. Milone, ca. xxi. ' ' Cur igitur eos' manumisit ? Metuebat 
scilicit no indicarent ; ne dolorem perferre non possent." 

2 Pro T. A. Milone, ca, xxii. " Heus tu, Iluscio, verbi gratia, cave sis 
mentiaris. Clodius insidias fecit Miloni ? Fecit. Certa crux. Nullas 
fecit. Sperata libertas. " 



PRO SEXTO ROSCIO. 101 

Was it so and so ? " The slave knows that if he say it was 
so, there is the cross for him, or the " little horse," but that 
if he will say the contrary he will save his joints from racking. 
And yet the evidence went for what it was worth. 

In this case of Eoscius there had certainly been two slaves 
present ; but Cicero who, as counsel for the defence could call 
no witnesses, had not the power to bring them into court. 
Nor could slaves have been made to give evidence against 
their masters. These slaves who had belonged to the mur- 
dered man, were now the property either of Chrysogonus or 
of the two Tituses. There was no getting at their evidence 
but by permission of their masters, and this was withheld. 
Cicero demands that they shall be produced, knowing that 
the demand will have no effect. " The man here," he says 
pointing to the accused, " asks for it, prays for it. What 
will you do in this case ? Why do you refuse ? " l 

By this time the reader is brought to feel that the accused 
person cannot possibly have been guilty, and if the reader, 
how much more the hearer. Then Cicero goes on to show 
who in truth were guilty. " Doubt now if you can, judges, 
by whom Koscius was killed ; whether by him who by his 
father's death is plunged into poverty and trouble, who is 
forbidden even to investigate the truth, or by those who are 
afraid of real evidence, who themselves possess the plunder, 
who live in the midst of murder, and on the proceeds of 
murder." 2 

Then he addresses one of the Tituses, Titus Magnus, who 

1 Pro Sexto Roscio, ca. xxviii. 2 Ibid. 



102 LIFE OF CICERO. 

seems to have been sitting in the Court, and who is rebuked 
for his impudence in doing so. Who can doubt who was the 
murderer; you who have got all the plunder or this man 
who has lost everything ? " " But if it be added to this, that 
you were a pauper before, that you have been known as a 
greedy fellow, as a dare-devil ; as the avowed enemy of him 
who has been killed, then need one ask what has brought 
you to do such a deed as this ? " l 

He next tells what took p]ace, as far as it was known, 
immediately after the murder. The man had been killed 
coming home from supper, in September after it was 
dark, say at eight or nine o'clock, and the fact was 
known in Ameria before dawn. Travelling was not then 
very quick; but a messenger, one Mallius Glaucia, a man 
on very close terms with Titus Magnus, was sent down at 
once in a light gig to travel through the night and take the 
information to Titus Capito. Why was all this hurry ? How 
did Glaucia hear of the murder so quickly ? What cause to 
travel all through the night? Why was it necessary that 
Capito should know all about it at once? I cannot think, 
says Cicero, only that I see that Capito has got three of the 
farms out of the thirteen which the murdered man owned ! 
But Capito is to be produced as a witness and Cicero gives 
us to understand what sort of cross-examination he will have 
to undergo. 

In all this the reader has to imagine much and to come to 
conclusions as to facts of which he has no evidence. When 

1 Pro Sexto Roscio, ca. xxxi. 



PRO SEXTO ROSCIO. 103 

that hurried messenger was sent there was probably no idea 
of accusing the son. The two real contrivers of the murder 
would have been more on their guard had they intended such 
a course. It had been conceived that when the man was 
dead and his goods seized the fear of Sulla's favourite, the 
still customary dread of the horrors of the time, would 
cause the son to shrink from inquiry. Hitherto when 
men had been killed and their goods taken, even if the 
killing and the taking had not been done strictly in ac- 
cordance with Sulla's ordinance, it had been found safer 
to be silent and to endure. But this poor wretch, Sextus, 
had friends in Eome. Friends who were friends of Sulla, 
of whom Chrysogonus and the Tituses had probably not 
bethought themselves. When it came to pass that more 
stir was made than they had expected, then the accusation 
became necessary. 

But in order to obtain the needed official support and aid 
Chrysogonus must be sought. Sulla was then at Volaterra, 
in Etruria, perhaps 150 miles north-west from Eome, and 
with him was his favourite Chrysogonus. In four days from 
the time of this murder the news was carried thither, and, 
so Cicero states, by the same messenger, by Glaucia, who 
had taken them to Ameria. Chrysogonus immediately saw 
to the selling of the goods, and from this Cicero implies that 
Chrysogonus and the two Tituses were in partnership. 

But it seems that when the fact of the death of old Eoscius 
was known at Ameria, at which place he was an occasional 
resident himself and the most conspicuous man in the place* 
the inhabitants, struck with horror, determined to send 



104 LIFE OF CICERO. 

a deputation to Sulla. Something of what was being 
done with their townsman's property was probably known, 
and there seems to have been a desire for justice. Ten 
townsmen were chosen to go to Sulla and to beg that 
he would personally look into the matter. Here again 
we are very much in the dark because this very Capito 
to whom these farms were allotted as his share, was not 
only chosen to be one of the ten but, actually became 
their spokesman and their manager. The great object 
was to keep Sulla himself in the dark, and this Capito 
managed to do, by the aid of Ohrysogonus. None of the 
ten were allowed to see Sulla. They are hoaxed into 
believing that Chrysogonus himself will look to it, and 
so they go back to Ameria having achieved nothing. 
We are tempted to believe that the deputation was a 
false deputation, each of whom probably had his little 
share, so that in this way there might be an appearance 
of justice. If it was so Cicero has not chosen to tell that 
part of the story, having no doubt some good advocate's 
reason for omitting it. 

So far the matter had gone with the Tituses, and with 
Chrysogonus who had got his lion's share. Our poor 
Roscius the victim did at first abandon his property, and 
allow himself to be awed into silence. We cannot but 
think that he was a poor creature, and can fancy that he 
had lived a wretched life during all the murders of the 
Sullan proscriptions. But in his abject misery he had 
found his way up among the great friends of his family 
at Rome, and had there been charged with the parricide 



ATTACK UPON CHRYSOGONUS. 105 

because Chrysogonus and the Tituses began to be afraid 
of what these great friends might do. 

This is the story as Cicero has been able to tell it in 
his speech. Beyond that we only know that the man was 
acquitted. Whether he got back part of his father's property 
there is nothing to inform us. Whether further inquiry was 
made as to the murder, whether evil befell those two Tituses, 
or Chrysogonus were made to disgorge, there has been no 
one to inform us. The matter was of little importance in 
Eome, where murders and organised robberies of the kind 
were the common incidents of everyday life. History would 
have meddled with nothing so ordinary had not it happened 
that the case fell into the hands of a man so great a master 
of his language that it has been worth the while of ages 
to perpetuate the speech which he made in the matter. 
But the story as a story of Koman life, is interesting, and 
it gives a slight aid to history in explaining the condition 
of things which Sulla had produced. 

The attack upon Chrysogonus is bold, and cannot but 
have been offensive to Sulla, though Sulla is by name ab- 
solved from immediate blame. Chrysogonus himself, the 
favourite, he does not spare, saying words so bitter of tone 
that one would think that the judges, Sulla's judges, would 
have stopped him had they been able. " Putting aside Sextus 
Eoscius," he says, " I demand first of all, why the goods of an 
esteemed citizen were sold ; then why have the goods been 
sold of one who had not himself been proscribed and who 
had not been killed while defending Sulla's enemies ? It is 
against those only that the law is made. Then I demand 



106 LIFE OF CICERO. 

why they were sold when the legal day for such sales 
had passed ; and why they were sold for such a trifle. 1 
Then he gives us a picture of Chrysogonus flaunting down 
the streets. "You have seen him, judges, how with his 
locks combed and perfumed he swims along the Forum," 
he a freedman, with a crowd of Roman citizens at 
his heels, that all may see that he thinks himself inferior 
to none, " the only happy man of the day, the only one 
with any power in his hands." 2 

This trial was as has been said a "causa publica," a 
criminal accusation of such importance as to demand that 
it should be tried before a full bench of judges. Of these 
the number would be uncertain, but they were probably 
above fifty. The Prsetor of the day, the Preetor to 
whom by lot had fallen for that year that peculiar duty, 
presided and the judges all sat round him. Their duty 
seems to have consisted in listening to the pleadings and 
then in voting. Each judge could vote 3 "guilty," "acquitted," 
or "not proven," as they do in Scotland. They were in 
fact jurymen rather than judges. It does not seem that 
any amount of legal lore was looked for specially in the 
judges, who at different periods, had been taken from 

1 Pro Sexto Roscio, ca. xlv. 

2 Pro Sexto Roscio, ca. xlvi. The whole picture of Chrysogonus, of his 
house, of his luxuries, and his vanity is too long for quotation, but is worth 
r eferring to by those who wish to see how bold and how brilliant Cicero 
could be. 

| 8 They put in tablets of wax, on which they recorded their judgment by in- 
/ scribed letters, C, A, orN L, Condemno, Absolvo, or Non liquet, intend- 
I ing to show that the means of coming to a decision did not seem to be sufficient. 



VENALITY OF THE JUDGES. 107 

various orders of the citizens, but who at this moment, 
by a special law enacted by Sulla, were selected only 
from the Senators. We have ample evidence that at 
this period the judges in Rome were most corrupt. 
They were tainted by a double corruption, that of standing 
by their order, instead of standing by the public, each man 
among them feeling that his turn to be accused might 
come ; and that also of taking direct bribes. Cicero on 
various occasions, on this for instance and notably in 
the trial of Verres to which we shall come soon, felt 
very strongly that his only means of getting a true 
verdict from the majority of judges was to frighten them 
into temporary honesty by the magnitude of the occasion. 
If a trial could be slurred through, with indifferent advocates, 
with nothing to create public notice, with no efforts of 
genius to attract admiration and a large attendance and 
consequent sympathy, the judgment would, as a matter 
of course, be bought. In such a case as this of Sextus 
Roscius, the poor wretch, would be condemned, sewn up 
in his bag and thrown into the sea, a portion of the plunder 
would be divided among the judges, and nothing further 
would be said about it. But if an orator could achieve 
for himself such a reputation that the world would come 
and listen to him, if he could so_speak that Rome should 
be made to talk about the trial, then might the judges 
be frightened into a true verdict. It may be understood 
therefore of what importance it was to obtain the services 
of a Cicero, or of a Hortensius, who was unrivalled at 
the Roman bar when Cicero began to plead. 



108 LIFE OF CICERO. 

There were three special modes of oratory in which Cicero 
displayed his powers. He spoke either before the judges, a 
large body of judges who sat collected round the Praetor as 
in the case of Sextus Eoscius, or in cases of civil law before 
a single judge, selected by the Praetor, who sat with an 
assessor, as in the case of Eoscius the actor, which shall be 
mentioned just now. This was the recognised work of his 
life, in which he was engaged at any rate in his earlier years. 
Or he spoke to the populace, in what was called the Concio 
or assembly of the people, speeches made before a crowd 
called together for a special purpose, as were the second and 
third orations against Catiline. Or in the Senate, in which a 
political rather than a judicial sentence was sought from the 
votes of the Senators. There was a fourth mode of address, 
which in the days of the Emperors became common, when 
the advocate spoke, " ad Principem," that is to the Emperor 
himself or to some ruler acting for him as sole judge. It was 
thus that Cicero pleaded before Csesar for Ligarius and for 
King Deiotarus in the latter years of his life. In each of 
these a separate manner and a distinct line had to be adopted, 
in all of which he seems to have been equally happy, and 
equally powerful. In judging of his speeches we are bound 
to remember that they were not probably uttered with their 
words arranged as we read them. Some of those we have 
were never spoken at all, as was the case with the five last 
Verrene orations, and with the second, by far the longest, of 
the Philippics. Some, as was specially the case with the 
defence of Milo the language of which is perhaps as perfect 
as that of any oration which has reached us from ancient or 



THE LAW COURTS. 109 

modern days, were only spoken in part, so that that which 
we read bears but small relation to that which was heard. 
All were probably retouched for publication. 1 That words so 
perfect in their construction should have flowed from a man's 
mouth, often with but little preparation, we cannot conceive. 
But we know from the evidence of the day and from the 
character which remained of him through after Roman ages, 
how great was the immediate effect of his oratory. We can 
imagine him, in this case of Sextus Roscius, standing out in 
the open air in the Forum, with the movable furniture of 
the court around him, the seats on which the judges sat with 
the Praetor in the midst of them, all Senators in their white 
robes with broad purple borders. There too, were seated, we 
may suppose on lower benches, the friends of the accused and 
the supporters of the accusation, and around, at the back of 
the orator, was such a crowd as he by the character of his 
eloquence may have drawn to the spot. Cicero was still a 
young man, but his name had made itself known, and we can 
imagine that some tidings had got abroad as to the bold 
words which would be spoken in reference to Sulla and 
Chrysogonus. The scene must have been very different from 
that of one of our dingy courts in which the ermine is made 
splendid only by the purity and learning of the man who 
wears it. In Rome all exterior gifts were there. Cicero 
knew how to use them so that the judges who made so large 

1 Quintilian tells us, lib. x. ca. vii., that Cicero's speeches as they had 
come to his day had been abridged, by which he probably means only 
arranged, by Tiro his slave and secretary and friend. "Nam Ciceronis 
ad prcesens modo tempus aptatos libertus Tiro contraxit." 



110 LIFE OF CICERO. 

a part in the pageant should not dare to disgrace themselves, 
because of its publicity. Quintilian gives his pupils much 
advice as to the way in which they should dress themselves l 
and hold their togas, changing the folds of the garment so 
as to suit the different parts of the speech, how they should 
move their arms and hold their heads, and turn their necks ; 
even how they should comb their hair, when they came to 
stand in public and plead at the bar. All these arts, with 
many changes no doubt as years rolled on, had come down to 
him from days before Cicero ; but he always refers to Cicero 
as though his were the palmy days of Roman eloquence. We 
can well believe that Cicero had studied many of these arts 
by his twenty -seventh year, that he knew how to hold his 
toga and how to drop it, how to make the proper angle with 
his elbow, how to comb his hair and yet not be a fop, and to 
add to the glory of his voice all the personal graces which 
were at his command. 

Sextus Eoscius Amerinus, with all his misfortunes, 
injustices, and miseries, is now to us no more than the name 
of a fable ; but to those who know it, the fable is, I think, 
more attractive than most novels. 



1 Quintiliau, lib. xi. ca. iii. "Nam et toga, et calceus, et capillus, tarn 
imnia cura, quam negligentia, sunt reprehendenda." .... "Sinistrum 
brachium eo usque allevandum est, ut quasi normalem ilium anguluin faciat." 
Quint, lib. xii. ca. x., "ne hirta toga sit ; " don't let the toga be rumpled ; 
' ' non serica ; " the silk here interdicted was the silk of effeminacy, not that 
silk of authority of which our barristers are proud. " Ne intonsum caput ; 
non in gradus atque annulos comptum." It would take too much space were 
I to give here all the lessons taught by this professor of deportment as to the 
wearing of the toga. 



CICERO AS A PHILOSOPHER. Ill 

We know that Cicero pleaded other causes before he went 
to Greece in the year 79, B.C. especially those for Publius 
Quintius of which we have his speech, and that for a lady of 
Arretium in which he defended her right to be regarded as a 
free woman of that city. In this speech he again attacked 
Sulla, the rights of the lady in question having been placed 
in jeopardy by an enactment made by the Dictator. And 
again Cicero was successful. This is not extant. Then he 
started on his travels, as to which I have already spoken. 
While he was absent Sulla died, and the condition of the 
Republic during his absence was anything but hopeful. 
Lepidus was Consul during these two years, than whom no 
weaker officer ever held rule in Rome, or rebelled against 
Eome ; and Sertorius, who was in truth a great man, was in 
arms against Rome, in Spain, as a rebel, though he was in 
truth struggling to create a new Roman power, which should 
be purer than that existing in Italy. What Cicero thought 
of the condition of his country at this time we have no 
means of knowing. If he then wrote letters they have not 
been preserved. His spoken words speak plainly enough of 
the condition of the courts of law, and let us know how 
resolved he was to oppose himself to their iniquities. A 
young man may devote himself to politics with as much 
ardour as a senior, but he cannot do so if he be intent on a 
profession. It is only when his business is so well grasped 
by him as to sit easily on him, that he is able to undertake 
the second occupation. 

There is a rumour that Cicero, when he returned home 
from Greece, thought for a while of giving himself up to 
philosophy, so that he was called Greek and Sophist, in 



112 LIFE OF CICERO. 

ridicule. It is not however to be believed that he ever for a 
moment abandoned the purpose he had formed for his own 
career. It will become evident, as we go on with his life, 
that this so-called philosophy of the Greeks was never to him 
a matter of more than interesting inquiry. A full active 
human life, in which he might achieve for himself all the 
charms of high rank, gilded by intelligence, erudition, and 
refined luxury, in which also he might serve his country, his 
order, and his friends, just such a life as our leading men 
propose to themselves here, to-day, in our own country, 
this is what Cicero had determined to achieve from his 
earliest years, and it was not likely that he should be turned 
from it by the pseudo-logic of Greek philosophers. That the 
logic even of the Academy was false to him we have ample 
evidence not only in his life but in his writings. There is a 
story that during his travels he consulted the oracle at Delphi 
as to his future career, and that on being told that he must 
look to his own genius and not to the opinion of the world at 
large he determined to abandon the honours of the Eepublic. 
That he should have talked among the young men of the day 
of his philosophic investigations till they laughed at him and 
gave him a nickname, may be probable, but it cannot have 
been that he ever thought of giving up the bar. 

In the year of his return to Eome, when he was thirty, he 
'married Terentia, a noble lady, of whom we are informed that 
she had a good fortune and that her sister was one of the 
Vestal Virgins. 1 Her nobility is inferred from the fact that 

1 A doubt has been raised whether he was not married when he went to 
Greece, as otherwise his daughter would seem to have become a wife earlier than 
is probable. The date, however, has been generally given as it is stated here. 



HIS INCOME. 113 

the virgins were as a rule chosen from the noble families, 
though the law required only that they should be the 
daughters of free parents and of persons engaged in no mean 
pursuits. As to the more important question of Terentia's 
fortune there has never been a doubt. Plutarch, however, 
does not make it out to have been very great, assuming a sum 
w,hich was equal to about 4,2001. of our money. He tells us 
at the same time that Cicero's own fortune was less than 
4,0001. But in both of these statements Plutarch, who was 
forced to take his facts when he could get them and was not 
very particular in his authority, probably erred. The early 
education of Cicero, and the care taken to provide him with 
all that money could purchase, is, I think, conclusive of his 
father's wealth, and the mode of life adopted by Cicero 
shows that at no period did he think it necessary to live as 
men do live with small incomes. 

We shall find as we go on that he spent his money 
freely, as men did at Rome who had the command of large 
means. We are aware that he was often in debt. We find 
that from his letters. But he owed money not as a needy 
man does, but as one who is speculative, sanguine, and quite 
confident of his own resources. The management of incomes 
was not so fixed a thing then as it is with us now. Specu- 
lation was even more rampant, and rising men were willing, 
and were able, to become indebted for enormous sums, 
having no security to offer but the promise of their future 
career. Caesar's debts during various times of his life were 
proverbial. He is said to have owed over 300,000 before 
he reached his first step in the public employment. Cicero 
VOL. i. i 



114 LIFE OF CICERO, 

rushed into no such danger as this. We know, indeed, that 
when the time came to him for public expenditure on a great 
scale, as for instance when he was filling the office of 
.ZEdile, he kept within bounds and would not lavish money 
which he did not possess. We know also that he refrained, 
altogether refrained, from the iniquitous modes of making 
lai-ge fortunes which were open to the great politicians 
of the Eepublic. To be Quaestor that he might be ^Edile, 
^Edile that he might be Praetor and Consul, and Praetor and 
Consul that he might rob a Province, pillage Sicily, Spain, 
or Asia, and then at last come back a rich man, rich enough 
to settle with all his creditors, and to bribe the judges should 
he be accused for his misdeeds, these were the usual steps 
taken by enterprising Eomans towards power, wealth, and 
enjoyment. But it will be observed, in this sequence of 
circumstances, the robbery of the Province was essential 
to success. This was sometimes done after so magnificent a 
fashion as to have become an immortal fact in history. The 
instance of Verres will be narrated in the next chapter but 
one. Something of moderation was more general, so that 
the fleeced provincial might still live and prefer sufferance 
to the doubtful chances of recovery. A Proconsul might 
rob a great deal and still return with hands apparently 
clean, bringing with him a score of provincial Deputies to 
laud his goodness before the citizens at home. But Cicero 
robbed not at all. Even they who have been most hard upon 
his name, accusing him of insincerity and sometimes of want 
of patriotism because his Eoman mode of declaring himself 
without reserve in his letters has been perpetuated for us 



HIS INCOME. 115 

by the excellence of their language, even they have 
acknowledged that he kept his hands studiously clean in 
the service of his country, when to have clean hands was 
so peculiar as to be regarded as absurd. 

There were other means in which a noble Roman might 
make money, and might do so without leaving the city. 
An orator might be paid for his services as an advocate. 
Cicero, had such a trade been opened to him, might have 
made almost any sum to which his imagination could have 
stretched itself. Such a trade was carried on to a very great 
extent. It was illegal, such payment having been forbidden 
by the " Lex Cincia De Muneribus " passed more than a 
t century before Cicero began his pleadings. 1 But the law 
had become a dead letter in the majority of cases. There 
can be no doubt that Hortensius the predecessor and great 
rival of Cicero took presents if not absolute payment. 
Indeed the myth of honorary work, which is in itself absurd, 
was no more practicable in Rome than it has been found 
to be in England, where every barrister is theoretically pre- 
sumed to work for nothing. That the " Lex Cincia," as far as 
the payment of advocates went, was absurd may be allowed 
by us all. Services for which no regular payment can be 
exacted will always cost more than those which have a 
denned price. But Cicero would not break the law. It has 
been hinted rather than stated that he, like other orators of 
the day, had his price. He himself tells us that he took 

1 Tacitus, Annal. xi. 5, says, "Qua cavetur antiquitus, ne quis, ob causam 
orandam, pecuniam donumve accipiat." 

I 2 



116 LIFE OF CICERO. 

nothing ; and no instance has been adduced that he had ever 
done so. He is free enough in accusing Hortensius of having 
accepted a beautiful statuette, an ivory sphinx of great value. 
What he knew of Hortensius, Hortensius would have known 
of him, had it been there to know. And what Hortensius, 
or others, had heard would certainly have been told. As 
far as we can learn there is no ground for accusing Cicero 
of taking fees or presents beyond the probability that he 
would do so. I think we are justified in believing that he 
did not do so, because those who watched his conduct closely 
found no opportunity of exposing him. That he was paid 
by different allied States for undertaking their protection in 
the Senate is probable, such having been a custom not illegal. 
AVe know that he was specially charged with the affairs of 
Dyrrachium, and had probably amicable relations with other 
allied communities. This, however, must have been later 
in life, when his name was sufficiently high to ensure the 
value of his services, and when he was a Senator. 

Noble Eomans also, noble as they were and infinitely 
superior to the little cares of trade, were accustomed to 
traffic very largely in usury. We shall have a terrible 
example of such baseness on the part of Brutus, that 
Brutus whom we have been taught to regard as almost on a 
par with Cato in purity. To lend money to citizens, or 
more profitably to allied states and cities, at enormous rates 
of interest, was the ordinary resource of a Roman nobleman 
in quest of revenue. The allied city, when absolutely eaten 
to the bone by one noble Roman who had plundered it as 
Proconsul or Governor, would escape from its immediate 



HIS INCOME. 117 

embarrassment by borrowing money from another noble 
Eoman, who would then grind its very bones in exacting his 
interest and his principal. Cicero in the most perfect of his 
works, the treatise De Officiis, an essay in which he instructs 
his son as to the way in which a man should endeavour to 
live so as to be a gentleman, inveighs both against trade 
and usury. When he tells us that they are to be accounted 
mean who buy in order that they may sell, we, with our 
later lights, do not quite agree with him, although he founds 
his assertion on an idea which is too often supported by the 
world's practice, namely, that men cannot do a retail business 
profitably without lying. 1 The doctrine, however, has always 
been common that retail trade is not compatible with 
noble bearing, and was practised by all Eomans who aspired 
to be considered among the upper classes. That other and 
certainly baser means of making money by usury was, 
however, only too common. Crassus, the noted rich man 
of Eome in Caesar's day, who was one of the first Trium- 
virate, and who perished ignominiously in Parthia, was known 
to have gathered much of his wealth by such means. But 
against this Cicero is as staunchly severe as against shop- 
keeping. "First of all," he says, "these profits are des- 
picable, which incur the hatred of men, such as those of 
gatherers of custom and lenders of money on usury." 2 



1 De Off. lib. i. ca. xlii. "Sordidi etiam putandi, qui mercantur a merca- 
toribus, quod statim vendant. Nihil enim proficiunt, nisi admodum men- 
tiantur." 

2 De Off. lib. i. ca. xlii. "Primum improbantur ii qusestus, qui in odia 
hominum incurrunt : ut portitorum ut fceneratorum." The Portitores were 



118 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Again we are entitled to say that Cicero did not con- 
descend to enrich himself by the means which he himself 
condemns because had he done so the accusations made 
against him by his contemporaries would have reached our 
ears. Nor is it probable that a man in addressing his 
son as to rules of life would have spoken against 
a method of gathering riches which, had he practised 
it himself, must have been known to his son. His 
rules were severe as compared with the habits of the 
time. His dear friend Atticus did not so govern his 
conduct, or Brutus, who when he wrote the De Officiis 
was only less dear to him than Atticus. But Cicero 
himself seems to have done so faithfully. We learn from 
his letters that he owned house-property in Eome to a 
considerable extent, having probably thus invested his 
own money or that of his wife. He inherited also the 
family-house at Arpinum. He makes it a matter for 
boasting that he had received in the course of his life by 
(/ legacies nearly 200,000 (twenty-million sesterces), in itself 
a source of great income, and one common with Romans 
of high position. 1 Of the extent of his income it is 
impossible to speak, or even make a guess. But we do 
know that he lived always as a rich man, as one who 
regards such a condition of life as essentially proper to 
him ; and that though he was often in debt, as was customary 



inferior collectors of certain dues, stationed at seaports, who are supposed to 
have been extremely vexatious in their dealings with the public. 
1 Philipp. 11-16. 



HIS INCOME. 119 

with noble Romans, he could always write about his debts 
in a vein of pleasantry, showing that they were not a 
heavy burden to him; and we know that he could at all 
times command for himself villas, books, statues, ornaments, 
columns, galleries, charming shades and all the delicious 
appendages of mingled wealth and intelligence. He was 
as might be some English Marquis who, though up to his 
eyes in mortgages, is quite sure that he will never want 
any of the luxuries befitting a Marquis. Though we have 
no authority to tell us how his condition of life became 
what it was, it is necessary that we should understand 
that condition if we are to get a clear insight into his 
life. Of that condition we have ample evidence. He 
commenced his career as a youth upon whose behalf 
nothing was spared, and when he settled himself in Rome 
with the purport of winning for himself the highest honours 
of the Republic he did so with the means of living like 
a nobleman. 

But the point on which it is most necessary to insist 
is this ; that while so many, I may almost say all around 
him in his own order, were unscrupulous as to their means 
of getting money, he kept his hands clean. The practice 
then was much as it is now. A gentleman in our days 
is supposed to have his hands clean ; but there has got 
abroad among us a feeling that, only let a man rise high 
enough, soil will not stick to him. To rob is base; 
but if you rob enough robbery will become heroism, or at 
any rate magnificence. With Cassar his debts have been 
accounted happy audacity, his pillage of Gaul and Spain, 



120 LIFE OF CICERO. 

and of Rome also, have indicated only the success of the 
great General; his cruelty, which in cold-blooded efficiency 
has equalled if not exceeded the blood-thirstiness of any 
other tyrant, has been called clemency. 1 I do not mean 
to draw a parallel between Csesar and Cicero. No two 
men could have been more different in their natures or in 
their career. But the one has been lauded because he was 
unscrupulous, and the other has incurred reproach because 
at every turn and twist in his life, scruples dominated him. 
I do not say that he always did what he thought to be 
right. A man who doubts much can never do that. The 
thing that was right to him in the thinking became wrong 
to him in the doing. That, from which he has shrunk 
as evil, when it was within his grasp, takes the colour 
of good when it has been beyond his reach. Cicero had 
not the stuff in him to rule the Rome and the Romans of 
his period. But he was a man whose hands were free 
from all stain, either of blood or money ; and for so much 
let him at any rate have the credit. 

Between the return of Cicero to Rome, in 77 B. C. 
and his election as Qusestor in 75, in which period he 
married Terentia, he made various speeches in different 
causes, of which only one remains to us, or rather a 
small part of one. This is notable as having been spoken 



1 Let any who doubt this statement refer to the fate of the inhabitants of 
Alesia and Uxellodunum. Caesar did not slay or torture for the sake of cruelty, 
but was never deterred by humanity when expediency seemed to him to 
require victims. Men and women, old and young, many or few, they were 
sacrificed without remorse, if his purpose required it. 



ROSCIUS, THE ACTOR. 121 

in behalf of that Boscius, the great comic actor, whose name 
has become familiar to us on account of his excellence, 
almost as have those of Garrick, of Siddons, and of Talma. 
It was a pleading as to the value of a slave, and the amount 
of pecuniary responsibility attaching to Eoscius on account 
of the slave, who had been murdered when in his charge. 
As .to the murder no question is made. The slave was 
valuable, and the injury done to his master was a matter 
of importance. He, having been a slave, could have no 
stronger a claim for an injury done to himself than would 
a dog or a horse. The slave whose name was Panurge, 
a name which has since been made famous as having 
been borrowed by Eabelais, probably from this occurrence, 
and given to his demon of mischief, showed aptitude for 
acting and was therefore valuable. Then one Flavius killed 
him, why or how, we do not know, and having killed him 
settled with Eoscius for the injury by giving him a small 
farm. But Eoscius had only borrowed or hired the man 
from one Chaerea, or was in partnership with Chserea 
as to the man, and on that account paid something out 
of the value of the farm for the loss incurred. But the 
owner was not satisfied and after a lapse of time made 
a further claim. Hence arose the action, in pleading 
which Cicero was successful. In the fragment we have 
of the speech, there is nothing remarkable except the 
studied clearness of the language ; but it reminds us of 
the opinion which Cicero had expressed of this actor in 
the oration which he made for Publius Quintius, who was 
the brother-in-law of Eoscius. "He is such an actor,''- 



122 LIFE OF CICERO. 

says Cicero, " that there is none other on the stage worthy 
to be seen; and such a man that among men he is the 
last that should have become an actor." 1 The orator's 
praise of the actor is not of much importance. Had 
not Eoscius been great in his profession his name would 
not have come down to later ages. Nor is it now matter 
of great interest that the actor should have been highly 
praised as a man by his advocate. But it is something 
for us to know that the stage was generally held in such 
low repute as to make it seem to be a pity that a good 
man should have taken himself to such a calling. 

In the year 76 B.C. Cicero became father of a daughter 
whom we shall know as Tullia, who as she grew up 
became the one person whom he loved best in all the 
world, and was elected Qusestor. Cicero tells us of 
himself that in the preceding year he had solicited the 
Qusestorship, when Gotta was candidate for the Consulship 
and Hortentius for the Prsetorship. There are in the 
dialogue De Claris Oratoribus, which has had the name 
of Brutus always given to it, some passages in which 
the orator tells us more of himself than in any other of 
his works. I will annex a translation of a small portion 
because of its intrinsic interest, but I will relegate it to 
an appendix because it is too long either for insertion in 
the text or for a note. 2 



1 Pro Pub. Quintio, ca. xxv. 

2 See Appendix B., Brutus, ca. xcii. xciii. 



CHAPTEE V. 

CICEEO AS QTLESTOK. 

CICERO was elected Quaestor in his thirtieth year, B.C. 76. 
He was then nearly thirty-one. His predecessors and rivals 
at the bar, Gotta and Hortensius were elected Consul and 
Praetor respectively in the same year. To become Quaestor 
at the earliest age allowed by the law, at thirty-one namely, 
was the ambition of the Eoman advocate who purposed to 
make his fortune by serving the State. To act as Quaestor 
in his thirty-second year, ^Edile in his thirty-seventh, Praetor 
in his forty-first, and Consul in his forty-fourth year, was 
to achieve, in the earliest succession allowed by law, all 
the great offices of trust, power, and future emolument. The 
great reward of proconsular rapine did not generally come 
till after the last step, though there were notable instances in 
which a Pro-Praetor with proconsular authority could make a 
large fortune, as we shall learn when we come to deal with 
Verres, and though ^Ediles and even Quaestors could find 
pickings. It was therefore a great thing for a man to begin 
as early as the law would permit, and to lose as few years 
as possible in reaching the summit. Cicero lost none. As 
he himself tells us in the passage to which I have referred 
in the last chapter, and which is to be found in the appendix 



124 LIFE OF CICERO. 

lie gained the good will of men, that is, of free Eomans 
who had the suffrage, and who could therefore vote either 
for him or against him, by the assiduity of his attention 
to the cases which he undertook, and by a certain brilliance 
of speech which was new to them. 1 Putting his hand 
strenuously to the plough, allowing himself to be diverted 
by none of those luxuries to which Eomans of his day 
were so wont to give way, he carried his purpose by a 
resolution to do his very best. He was "Novus Homo," 
a man that is, belonging to a family of which no member 
had as yet filled high office in the State. Against such 
there was a strong prejudice with the aristocracy, who did 
not like to see the good things of the Kepublic dispersed 
among an increased number of hands. The power of voting 
was common to all Eoman male citizens ; but the power 
of influencing the electors had passed very much into the 
hands of the rich. The admiration which Cicero had 
determined to elicit would not go very far unless it could 
be produced in a very high degree. A Verres could get 
himself made Praetor, a Lepidus some years since could 
receive the Consulship; or now an Antony or almost a 
Catiline. The candidate would borrow money, on the 
security of his own audacity, and would thus succeed, 
perhaps with some minor gifts of eloquence, if he could 
achieve them. With all this, the borrowing and the spend- 
ing of money, that is, with direct bribery, Cicero would 
have nothing to do ; but of the art of canvassing, that art 
by which he could at the moment make himself beloved 

J Urutus, c. xciii. " Auhnos hominum ail me dicendi novitate converteram." 



CICERO AS QUAESTOR. 125 

by the citizens who had a vote to give, he was a profound 
master. 

There is a short treatise " De petitione Consulatus," on 
canvassing for the Consulship, of which mention may be 
made here because all the tricks of the trade were as 
essential to him when looking to be Quaestor as when he 
afterwards desired to be Consul, and because the political 
doings of his life will hurry us on too quickly in the days 
of his Consulship to admit of our referring to these lessons. 
This little piece of which we have only a fragment is 
supposed to have been addressed to Cicero by his brother 
Quintus, giving fraternal advice as to the then coming 
great occasion. The critics say that it was retouched by 
the orator himself. The reader who has studied Cicero's 
style will think that the retouching went to a great extent, 
or that the two brothers were very like each other in their 
power of expression. 

The first piece of advice was no doubt always in Cicero's 
mind, not only when he looked for office, but whenever 
he addressed a meeting of his fellow citizens. "Bethink 
yourself what is this Eepublic ; what it is you seek to be 
in it, and who you are that seek it. As you go down 
daily to the Forum turn the answer to this in your mind. 
' Novus sum ; consulatum peto ; Roma est.' ' I am a man 
of an untried family. It is the Consulship that I seek. It 
is Rome in which I seek it.' " Though the condition of 
Rome was bad, still to him the Republic was the greatest 
thing in the world, and to be Consul in that Republic the 
highest honour which the world could give. 



126 LIFE OF CICERO. 

There is nobility in that; but there is very much that 
is ignoble in the means of canvassing which are advocated. 
I cannot say that they are as yet too ignoble for our modern 
use here in England, but they are too ignoble to be acknow- 
ledged by our candidates themselves, or by their brothers 
on their behalf. Cicero, not having progressed far enough 
in modern civilisation to have studied the beauty of truth, 
is held to be false and hypocritical. We, who know so 
much more than he did and have the doctrine of truth 
at our fingers' ends, are wise enough to declare nothing of 
our own shortcomings, but to attribute such malpractices 
only to others. "It is a good thing to be thought worthy 
of the rank we seek, by those who are in possession of it." 
Make yourself out to be an aristocrat, he means. " Canvass 
them and cotton to them. Make them believe that in matters 
of politics you have always been with the aristocracy, never 
with the mob;" that if "you have at all spoken a word 
in public to tickle the people, you have done so for the 
sake of gaining Pompey." As to this it is necessary to 
understand Pompey's peculiar popularity at the moment, 
both with the Liberals and with the Conservatives. " Above 
all see that you have with you the 'jeunesse doree.' They 
carry so much ! There are many with you already. Take 
care that they shall know how much you think of them." 

He is especially desired to make known to the public the 
iniquities of Catiline his opponent, as to whom Quintus 
says that though he has lately been acquitted in regard 
to his peculations in Africa, he has had to bribe the judges 
so highly that he is now as poor as they were before they 



CICERO AS QUAESTOR. 127 

got their plunder. At every word we read we are tempted 
to agree with Mominsen that on the Eoman oligarchy of 
the period no judgment can be passed save one, "of in- 
exorable condemnation." l 

"Bemember," says Quintus, "that your candidature is very 
strong in that kind of friendship which has been created 
by your pleadings. Take care that each of those friends 
shall know what special business is allotted to him on the 
occasion. And, as you have not troubled any of them yet, 
make them understand that you have reserved for the 
present moment the payment of their debts." This is all 
very well, but the next direction mingles so much of 
business with its truth, that no one but Machiavelli or 
Quintus Cicero could have expressed it in words. " Men," 
says Quintus, " are induced to struggle for us in these 
canvassings, by three motives, by memory of kindness 
done, by the hope of kindness to come, and by community 
of political conviction. You must see how you are to catch 
each of these. Small favours will induce a man to canvass 
for you ; and they who owe their safety to your pleadings, 
for there are many such, are aware that if they do not 
stand by you now they will be regarded by all the world 
as sorry fellows. Nevertheless they should be made to feel 
that, as they are indebted to you, you will .be glad to have 
an opportunity of becoming indebted to them. But as to 
those on whom you have a hold only by hope, a class 

1 It must be remembered that this advice was actually given when Cicero 
subsequently became a candidate for the consulship, but is mentioned here as 
showing the manner in which were sought the great offices of state. 



128 LIFE OF CICERO. 

of men very mucli more numerous, and likely to be very 
much more active, they are the men whom you should 
make to understand that your assistance will be always at 
their command." 

How severe, how difficult was the work of canvassing in 
Rome we learn from these lessons. It was the very essence 
of a great Roman's life that he should live in public, and 
to such an extent was this carried that we wonder how such 
a man as Cicero found time for the real work of his life. 
The Eoman patron was expected to have a levee every 
morning early in his own house, and was wont when he 
went down into the Forum to be attended by a crowd of 
parasites. This had become so much a matter of course 
that a public man would have felt himself deserted had he 
been left alone either at home or abroad. Rome was full of 
idlers, of men who got their bread by the favours of the 
great, who lounged through their lives, political quidnuncs 
who made canvassing a trade, men without a conviction 
but who believed in the ascendency of this or the other 
leader, and were ready to fawn, or to fight in the streets 
as there might be need. These were the Quirites of the 
day, men who were in truth fattened on the leavings of 
the plunder which was extracted from the allies. For it 
was the case now that a Roman was content to live on 
the industry of those whom his father had conquered. They 
would still fight in the legions, but the work of Rome was 
done by slaves, and the wealth of Rome was robbed from 
the Provinces. Hence it came about that there was a 
numerous class, to whom the name " assectatores " was given, 



CICERO AS QUAESTOR. 129 

who of course became specially prominent at elections. 
Quintus divides all such followers into three kinds, and 
gives instructions as to the special treatment to be applied 
to each. " There are those who come to pay their respects 
to you at your own house," " Salutatores " they were called, 
" then those who go down with you into the Forum," 
" Deductores ; " " and after these the third, the class of 
constant followers," " Assectatores " as they were specially 
named. " As to the first, who are the least in consequence, 
and who, according to our present ways of living, come in 
great numbers, you should take care to let them know that 
their doing even so much as this is much esteemed by 
you. Let them perceive that you note it when they 
come, and say as much to their friends who will repeat your 

words. Tell themselves often if it be possible. In this 
way men, when there are many candidates, will observe that 
there is one who has his eyes open to these courtesies, and 
they will give themselves heart and soul to him, neglecting 
all others. And mind you, when you find that a man 
does but pretend, do not let him perceive that you have 
perceived it. Should any one wish to excuse himself, 
thinking that he is suspected of indifference, swear that 
you have never doubted him nor had occasion to doubt. 

"As to the work of the ' deductores,' who go out with 
you; as it is much more severe than that of those who 
merely come to pay their compliments, let them understand 
that you feel it to be so, and as far as possible, be ready 
to go into town with them at fixed hours." Quintus here 
means that the " deductores " are not to be kept waiting 

VOL. I. K 



130 LIFE OF CICERO. 

for the patron longer than can be helped. " The attendance 
of a daily crowd in taking you down to the Forum gives 
a great show of character and dignity. 

" Then come the band of followers which accompanies 
you diligently wherever you go. As to those who do this 
without special obligation, take care that they should know 
how much you think of them. From those who owe it to 
you as a duty, exact it rigorously. See that they who can 
come themselves, do come themselves, and that they who 
cannot, send others in their places." What an idea does 
this give as to the labour of a candidate in Borne ! I can 
imagine it to be worse even than the canvassing of an 
English borough, which to a man of spirit and honour is 
the most degrading of all existing employments not held 
to be absolutely disgraceful. 

Quintus then goes on from the special management of 
friends to the general work of canvassing. " It requires 
the remembering of men's names " " nomenclationem," a 
happy word we do not possess, " flattery, diligence, sweet- 
ness of temper, good report, and a high standing in the 
Eepublic. Let it be seen that you have been at the trouble 
to remember people, and practise yourself to it so that the 
power may increase with you. There is nothing so alluring 
to the citizen as that. If there be a softness which you have 
not by nature, so affect it that it shall seem to be your 
own naturally. You have indeed a way with you which is 
not unbecoming to a good-natured man ; but you must 
caress men, which is in truth vile and sordid at other 
times but is absolutely necessary at elections. It is no 



CICERO AS QUAESTOR. 131 

doubt a mean thing to flatter some low fellow, but when 
it is necessary to make a friend it can be pardoned. A 
candidate must do it, whose face and look and tongue 
should be made to suit those he has to meet. What per- 
severance means I need not tell you. The word itself 
explains itself. As a matter of course you should not leave 
the city ; but it is not enough for you to stick to your work 
in Eome and in the Forum. You must seek out the voters 
and canvass them separately ; and take care that no one 
shall ask from another what it is that you want from. him. 
Let it have been solicited by yourself, and often solicited." 
Quintus seems to have understood the business well, and 
the elder brother no doubt profited by the younger brother's 
care. 

It was so they did it at Eome. That men should have 
gone through all this in search of plunder and wealth does 
not strike us as being marvellous, or even out of place. 
A vile object justifies vile means. But there were some at 
Eome who had it at their hearts really to serve their 
country, and with whom it was at the same time a matter 
of conscience that in serving their country they would not 
dishonestly or dishonourably enrich themselves. There was 
still a grain of salt left. But even this could not make 
itself available for useful purpose without having recourse 
to tricks such as these \ 

In his proper year Cicero became Quaestor, and had 

B c 7g assigned to him by lot the duty of looking after the 

setat 32. Western Division of Sicily. For Sicily, though but 

one province as regarded general condition, being under one 

K 2 



132 LIFE OF CICERO. 

governor with proconsular authority, retained separate modes 
of government, or rather varied forms of subjection to Borne, 
especially in matters of taxation, according as it had or had 
not been conquered from the Carthaginians. 1 Cicero was 
quartered at Lilybaeum on the west, whereas the other Quaestor 
was placed at Syracuse in the east. There were at that 
time twenty Quaestors' elected annually, some of whom re- 
mained in Rome, but most of the number were stationed 
about the empire, there being always one as assistant to 
each Proconsul. When a Consul took the field with an 
army he always had a Quaestor with him. This had be- 
come the case so generally that the Quaestor became as it 
were something between a private secretary and a senior 
lieutenant to a governor. The arrangement came to have a 
certain sanctity attached to it, as though there was some- 
thing in the connection warmer and closer than that of 
mere official life, so that a Quaestor has been called a 
Proconsul's son for the time, and was supposed to feel 
that reverence and attachment that a son entertains for 
his father. 

But to Cicero, and to young Quaestors in general, the 
great attraction of the office consisted in the fact that the 
aspirant having once become a Quaestor was a Senator for 
the rest of his life, unless he should be degraded by 

1 Cicero speaks of Sicily as divided into two provinces, " Qustores 
utriusque provincise." There was however but one Prator or Proconsul. 
But the island had been taken by the Romans at two different times. Lily- 
bseum and the west was obtained from the Carthaginians at the end of the 
first Punic war, whereas Syracuse was conquered by Marcellus and occupied 
during the second Punic war. 



CICERO AS QUJ88TOR. 133 

misconduct. Gradually it had come to pass that the Senate 
was replenished by the votes of the people, not directly, but 
by the admission into the Senate of the popularly elected 
magistrates. There were in the time of Cicero between 500 
and 600 members of this body. The numbers down to the 
time of Sulla had been increased or made up, by direct 
selection by the old Kings, or by the Censors, or by some 
Dictator, such as was Sulla ; and the same thing was done 
afterwards by Julius Caesar. The years between Sulla's 
dictatorship and that of Caesar were but thirty, from 79 
to 49 B.C. These however were the years in which Cicero 
dreamed that the Eepublic could be re-established by means 
of an honest Senate, which Senate was then to be kept alive 
by the constant infusion of new blood, accruing to it from 
the entrance of magistrates who had been chosen by the 
people. Tacitus tells us that it was with this object that 
Sulla had increased the number of Quaestors. 1 Cicero's 
hopes, his futile hopes of what an honest Senate might be 
made to do, still ran high, although at the very time in 
which he was elected Quaestor he was aware that the judges, 
then elected from the Senate, were so corrupt that their 
judgment could not be trusted. Of this popular mode of 
filling the Senate he speaks afterwards in his treatise, " De 
Legibus." " From those who have acted as magistrates the 
Senate is composed a measure altogether in the popular 
interest, as no one can now reach the highest rank" 
namely, the Senate " except by the votes of the people, 

1 Tacitus Ann. lib, xi. ca. xxii. "Post, lege Sullae, viginti creati supplendo 
senatui, cui judicia tradiderat." 



134 LIFE OF CICERO. 

all power of selecting having been taken away from the 
Censors. 1 In his pleadings for P. Sextus he makes the same 
boast as to old times, not with absolute accuracy, as far as 
we can understand the old constitution, but with the same 
passionate ardour as to the body. " Romans, when they 
could no longer endure the rule of kings, created annual 
magistrates but after such fashion that the Council of the 
Senate was set over the Republic for its guidance. Sena- 
tors were chosen for that work by the entire people, and 
the entrance to that order was opened to the virtue and to 
the industry of the citizens at large." 2 When defending 
Cluentius he expatiates on the glorious privileges of the 
Roman Senate. " Its high place, its authority, its splendour 
at home, its name and fame abroad, the purple robe, the 
ivory chair, the appanage of office, the fasces, the army 
with its command, the government of the provinces ! " 3 On 
that splendour " apud exteras gentes," he expatiates in one 
of his attacks upon Verres. 4 From all this will be seen 
Cicero's idea of the chamber into which he had made his 
way as soon as he had been chosen Quaestor. 

In this matter, which was the pivot on which his whole 
life turned, the character namely of the Roman Senate, 
it cannot but be observed that he was wont to blow both hot 
and cold. It was his nature to do so, not from any aptitude 
for deceit, but because he was sanguine and vacillating, 

1 De Legibns, iii. xii. 2 Pro P. Sexto, Ixv. 3 Pro Cluentio, Ivi. 

4 Contra Verrem, ii. lib. ca. xi. "Ecquse civitas est, non modo in provinciis 
nostris, verum etiam in ultimis nationibus, ant tarn potens, aut tarn libera, 
aut etiam tarn immanis ac barbara ; rex denique ecquis est, qui senatorem 
populi Romani tecto ac donio non iuvitet ? " 



CICERO AS QUAESTOR. 135 

"because he now aspired and now despaired. He blew hot and 
cold in regard to the Senate, because at times he would feel 
it to be what it was, composed for the most part of men 
who were time-serving and corrupt, willing to sell themselves 
for a price to any buyer ; and then again at times he would 
think of the Senate as endowed with all those privileges 
which he names, and would dream that under his influence 
it would become what it should be, such a Senate as he 
believed it to have been in. its old palmy days. His praise of 
the Senate, his description of what it should be and might 
be, I have given. To the other side of the picture we shall 
come soon when I shall have to show how, at the trial 
of Verres, he declared before the judges themselves how 
terrible had been the corruption of the judgment-seat in 
Rome since by Sulla's enactment it had been occupied only 
by the Senators. One passage I will give now in order that 
the reader may see by the juxtaposition of the words that 
he could denounce the Senate as loudly as he would 
vaunt its privileges. In the column on the left hand in 
the note I quote the words with which in the first pleading 
against Verres he declared " that every base and iniquitous 
thing done on the judgment-seat during the ten years since 
the power of judging had been transferred to the Senate, 
should be not only denounced by him but also proved," and 
in that on the right I will repeat the noble phrases which 
he afterwards used in the speech for Cluentius when he 
chose to speak well of the order. 1 



1 Contra Verrem, Act i. Ca. xiii. 
" Omnia non modo commeraorabun- 



Pro Cluentio Ivi. "Locns, aucto- 
ritas, domi splendor, apud exteras 



136 LIFE OF CICERO. 

It was on the Senate that they who wished well for Eome, 
must depend, on the Senate, chosen, refreshed and re- 
plenished from among the people ; on a body which should 
be at the same time august and popular, as far removed on 
the one side from the tyranny of individuals as on the 
other from the violence of the mob ; but on a Senate freed 
from its corruption and dirt, on a body of noble Romans 
fitted by their individual character and high rank to rule 
and to control their fellow citizens. This was Cicero's idea, 
and this the state of things which he endeavoured to achieve. 
No doubt he dreamed that his own eloquence and his own 
example might do more in producing this than is given 
to men to achieve by such means. No doubt there was 
conceit in this, conceit and perhaps vanity. It has to be 
admitted that Cicero always exaggerated his own powers. 
But the ambition was great, the purpose noble, and the 
course of his whole life was such as to bring no disgrace on 
his aspirations. He did not thunder against the judges for 
taking bribes, and then plunder a Province himself. He did 
not speak grandly of the duty of a patron to his- clients, 
and then open his hands to illicit payments. He did not 
call upon the Senate for high duty, and then devote him- 
seJf to luxury and pleasure. He had a beau ideal of the 
manner in which a Roman Senator should live and work ; 
and he endeavoured to work and live up to that ideal. 



tur, sed etiam, expositis certis rebus, 
agentur, quse inter decem annos, 
posteaquam jndicia ad senatum 
translata sunt, in rebus, judicandis 
nefarie flagitioseque facta sunt." 



nationes nomen et gratia, toga prce- 
texta, cella curulis, insignia, fasces, 
exercitus, imperia, provincia." 



CICERO AS QUAESTOR. 137 

There was no period after his consulship in which he was 
not aware of his own failure. Nevertheless, .with constant 
labour but with intermittent struggles, he went on, till, at 
the end, in the last fiery year of his existence, he taught 
himself again to think that even yet there was a chance. 
How he struggled and in struggling perished we shall see 
by and by. 

What Cicero did as Qusestor in Sicily we have no means 
of knowing. His correspondence does not go back so far. 
That he was very active and active for good we have two 
testimonies, one of which is serious, convincing, and most 
important as an episode in his life. The other consists simply 
of a good story, told by himself of himself, not intended at 
all for his own glorification, but still carrying with it a 
certain weight. As to the first; Cicero was Quaestor in 
Lilybseuni in the thirty-second year of his life. In the thirty- 
seventh year he was elected ^dile, and was then called upon 
by the Sicilians to attack Verres on their behalf. Verres was 
said to have carried off from Sicily plunder to the amount of 
nearly 400,000, 1 after a misrule of three years duration. 
All Sicily was ruined. Beyond its pecuniary losses its suf- 
ferings had been excruciating ; but not till the end had come 
of a Governor's proconsular authority could the almost hope- 
less chance of a criminal accusation against the tyrant be 
attempted. The tyrant would certainly have many friends 

1 Contra Verrem, Act i. xviii. " Quadringenties sestertium ex Sicilia contra 
leges abstulisse. " In Smith's Dictionary of Grecian and Roman Antiquities, 
we are told that a thousand sesterces is equal in our money to 81. 17s. Id. 
Of the estimated amount of this plunder we shall have to speak again. . 



138 LIFE OF CICERO. 

in Eome. The injured Provincials would probably have 
none of great mark. A man because he had been Quaestor 
was not necessarily one having influence, unless he belonged 
to some great family. This was not the case with Cicero. 
But he had made for himself such a character during his 
year of office that the Sicilians declared that if they could 
trust themselves to any man at Rome it would be to their 
former Quaestor. It had been a part of his duty to see that 
the proper supply of corn was collected in the island and 
sent to Eome. A great portion of the bread eaten in Rome 
was grown in Sicily, and much of it was supplied in the 
shape of a tax. It was the hateful practice of Rome to 
extract the means of living from her Colonies so as to spare 
her own labourers. To this, hard as it was, the Sicilians 
were well used. They knew the amount required of them 
by law, and were glad enough when they could be quit in 
payment of the dues which the law required. But they were 
seldom blessed by such moderation on the part of their rulers. 
To what extent this special tax could be stretched we shall 
see when we come to the details of the trial of Verres. It 
is no doubt only from Cicero's own words that we learn that 
though he sent to Rome plenteous supplies he was just to the 
dealer, liberal to the towns, and forbearing to the allies 
generally ; and that when he took his departure they paid 
him honours hitherto unheard of. 1 But I think we may take 
it for granted that this statement is true ; firstly, because 
it has never been contradicted; and then from the fact 



1 Pro Plancio, xxvi. 



CICERO AS QUAESTOR. 139 

that the Sicilians all came to him in the day of their 
distress. 

As to the little story to which I have alluded, it has been 
told so often since Cicero told it himself, that I am almost 
ashamed to repeat it. It is, however, too emblematic of the 
man, gives us too close an insight both into his determina- 
tion to do his duty and to his pride conceit if you will at 
having done it, to be omitted. In his speech for Plancius l he 
tells us that by chance coming direct from Sicily after his 
Qusestorship he found himself at Puteoli just at the season 
when the fashion from Eome betook itself to that delightful 
resort. He was full of what he had done, how he had sup- 
plied Rome with corn, but had done so without injury to the 
Sicilians, how honestly he had dealt with the merchants, and 
had in truth won golden opinions on all sides, so much so 
that he thought that when he reached the city the citizens in 
a mob would be ready to receive him. Then at Puteoli he 
met two acquaintances. " Ah," says one to him, " when did 
you leave Eome ? What news have you brought ? " Cicero 
drawing his head up, as we can see him, replied that he had 
just returned from his Province. " Of course, just back from 
Africa," said the other. " Not so," said Cicero, bridling in 
anger, " stomachans fastidiose " as he describes it himself, 
" but from Sicily." Then the other lounger, a fellow who 
pretended to know everything, put in his word. " Do you 
not know that our Cicero has been Qusestor at Syracuse ? " 
The reader will remember that he had been Qusestor in the 

3 Pro Plancio, xxvi. 



140 LIFE OF CICERO. 

other division of the island, at Lilybseum. " There was no 
use in thinking any more about it," says Cicero. " I gave up 
being angry and determined to be like any one else, just one 
at the waters." Yes; he had been very conceited, and well 
understood his own fault of character in that respect ; but 
he would not have shown his conceit in that matter had he 
not resolved to do his duty, in a manner uncommon then 
among Quaestors, and been conscious that he had done it. 

Perhaps there is no more certain way of judging a man 
than from his own words, if his real words be in our posses- 
sion. In doing so we are bound to remember how strong will 
be the bias of every man's mind in his own favour, and for 
that reason a judicious reader will discount a man's praise of 
himself. But the reader, to get at the truth, if he be indeed 
judicious, will discount them after a fashion conformable 
with the nature of the man whose character he is investi- 
gating. A reader will not be judicious who imagines that 
what a man says of his own praises must be false, or that all 
which can be drawn from his own words in his own dispraise 
must be true. If a man praise himself for honour, probity, 
industry, and patriotism, he will at any rate show that these 
virtues are dear to him, unless the course of his life has 
proved him to be altogether a hypocrite in such utterances. 
It has not been presumed that Cicero was a hypocrite in 
these utterances. He was honest, and industrious ; he did 
appreciate honour and love his country. So much is acknow- 
ledged; and yet it is supposed that what good he has 
told us of himself is false. If a man doubt of himself 
constantly, if in his most private intercourse and closest 



CICERO AS QU^STOR. 141 

familiar utterances he admit occasionally his own human 
weakness ; if he find himself to have failed at certain 
moments and says so ; the very feelings that have produced 
such confessions are proof that the highest points which have 
not been attained have been seen and valued. A man will 
not sorrowfully regret that he has won only a second place, 
or a third, unless he be alive to the glory of the first. But 
Cicero's acknowledgments have all been taken as proof 
against himself. All manner of evil is argued against him 
from his own words, when an ill meaning can be attached 
to them ; . but when he speaks of his great aspirations he is 
ridiculed for bombast and vanity. On the strength of some, 
perhaps unconsidered, expression in a letter to Atticus, he is 
condemned for treachery, whereas the sentence in which he 
has thoughtfully declared the purposes of his very soul are 
counted as claptraps. 

No one has been so frequently condemned out of his own 
mouth as Cicero, and naturally. In these modern days we 
have contemporary records as to prominent persons. Of the 
characters of those who lived in long past ages we generally 
fail to have any clear idea because we lack those close 
chronicles which are necessary for the purpose. What 
insight have we into the personality of Alexander the Great, 
or what insight had Plutarch who wrote about him ? As to 
Samuel Johnson, we seem to know every turn of his mind, 
having had a Boswell. Alexander had no Boswell. But 
here is a man, belonging to those past ages of which I speak, 
who was his own Boswell, and after such a fashion, that, 
since letters were invented, no records have ever been 



142 LIFE OF CICERO. 

written in language more clear or more attractive. It is 
natural that we should judge out of his own mouth one who 
left so many more words behind him than did any one 
else, particularly one who left words so pleasant to read. 
And all that he wrote was after some fashion about himself. 
His letters like all letters are personal to himself. His 
speeches are words coming out of his own mouth about 
affairs in which he was personally engaged and interested. 
His rhetoric consists of lessons given by himself about his 
own art, founded on his own experience and on his own ob- 
servation of others. His so-called philosophy gives us the 
workings of his own mind. No one has ever told the world 
so much about another person as Cicero has told the world 
about Cicero. Boswell pales before him as a chronicler of 
minutiae. It may be a matter of small interest now to the 
bulk of readers to be intimately acquainted with a Koman, 
who was never one of the world's conquerors. It may be 
well for those who desire to know simply the facts of the 
world's history to dismiss as unnecessary the aspirations of 
one who lived so long ago. But if it be worth while to 
discuss the man's character, it must be worth while to 
learn the truth about it. 

" Oh, that mine adversary had written a book ! " Who does 
not understand the truth of these words ? It is always out of 
a man's mouth that you may most surely condemn him. 
Cicero wrote many books, and all about himself. He has 
been lauded very highly. Middleton in the preface to his 
own biography, which with all its charms has become a bye- 
word for eulogy, quotes the opinion of Erasmus, who tells us 



CICERO AS QUJtSTOB. 143 

that he loves the writings of the man " not only for the 
divine felicity of his style, but for the sanctity of his heart 
and morals." This was the effect left on the mind of an 
accurate thinker and most just man. But then also has 
Cicero been spoken of with the bitterest scorn. From Dio 
Cassius, who wrote two hundred and twenty years after 
Christ, down to Mr. Froude whose Caesar has just been 
published, he has had such hard things said of him by men 
who have judged him out of his own mouth that the reader 
does not know how to reconcile what he now reads with the 
opinion of men of letters who lived and wrote in the century 
next after his death, with the testimony of such a man as 
Erasmus, and with the hearty praises of his biographer, 
Middleton. The sanctity of his heart and morals ! It was 
thus that Erasmus was struck in reading his works. It is a 
feeling of that kind I profess, that has induced me to take 
this work in hand, a feeling produced altogether by the 
study of his own words. It has seemed to me that he has 
loved men so well, has been so anxious for virtue, has been so 
capable of honesty when dishonesty was common among all 
around him, has been so jealous in the cause of good govern- 
ment, has been so hopeful when there has been but little 
ground for hope, as to have deserved a reputation for 
sanctity of heart and morals.' 

Of the speeches made by Cicero as advocate, after his 
Queestorship, and before those made in the accusation of 
Verres we have the fragment only of the second of two spoken 
in defence of Marcus Tullius Decula, whom we may suppose 
to have been distantly connected with his family. He does 



144 LIFE OF CICERO. 

not avow any relationship. " What," he says in opening his 
argument, " does it become me, a Tullius, to do for this other 
Tullius, a man not only my friend but my namesake ? " It 
was a matter of no great importance, as it was addressed to 
judges, not so called, but to " recuperatores," judges chosen 
by the Praetor and who acted in lighter cases. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

VEKRES. 

THERE are six episodes, or, as I may say, divisions, 
in the life of Cicero to which special interest attaches 
itself. The first is the accusation against Verres, in which 
he drove the miscreant howling out of the city. The 
second is his consulship, in which he drove Catiline out 
of the city, and caused certain other conspirators who 
were joined with the arch rebel to be killed either legally 
or illegally. The third was his exile, in which he himself 
was driven out of Eome. The fourth was a driving out 
too, though of a more honourable kind, when he was com- 
pelled, much against his will, to undertake the government 
of a province. The fifth was Caesar's passing of the Eubicon, 
the battle of Pharsalia and his subsequent adherence to 
Caesar. The last was his internecine combat with Antony, 
which produced the Philippics and that memorable series 
of letters in which he strove to stir into flames the expiring 
embers of the Eepublic. The literary work with which we 
are acquainted is spread, but spread very unequally, 
over his whole life. I have already told the story of Sextus 
Eoscius Amerinus, having taken it from his own words. From 
that time onwards he wrote continually, but the fervid 

VOL. i. L 



146 LIFE OF CICERO. 

stream of his eloquence came forth from him with unrivalled 
rapidity in the twenty last miserable months of his life. 

We have now come to the first of those episodes, and 
I have to tell the way in which Cicero struggled with 
Verres, and how he conquered him. In 74 B.C. Verres was 
Praetor in Eome. At that period of the Eepublic there 
were eight Praetors elected annually, two of whom remained 
in the city, whereas the others were employed abroad, 
generally with the armies of the Empire. In the next 
year, 73 B.C., Verres went in due course to Sicily with 
proconsular, or pro-praetorial, authority, having the govern- 
ment assigned to him for twelve months. This was usual 
and constitutional, but it was not unusual, even if uncon- 
stitutional, that this period should be prolonged. In the 
case of Verres it was prolonged, so that he should hold 
the office for three years. He had gone through the 
other offices of the state, having been Quaestor in Asia 
and MdilQ afterwards in Eome, to the great misfortune 
of all who were subjected to his handling, as we shall 
learn by and by. The facts are mentioned here to 
show that the great offices of the Eepublic were open 
to such a man as Verres. They were in fact more open 
to such a candidate than they would be to one less 
iniquitous, to an honest man or a scrupulous one, or 
to one partially honest or not altogether unscrupulous. If 
you send a dog into a wood to get truffles you will en- 
deavour to find one that will tear up as many truffles as 
possible. A proconsular robber did not rob only for 
himself. He robbed more or less for all Eome. Verres 



VERRES. 147 

boasted that with his three years of rule he could bring 
enough home to bribe all the judges, secure all the best 
advocates, and live in splendid opulence for the rest of his 
life. What a dog he was to send into a wood for truffles ! 
To such a condition as this had Eome fallen when the 
deputies from Sicily came to complain of their late governor 
and to obtain the services of Cicero in seeking for what- 
ever reparation might be possible. Verres had carried on 
his plunder during the years 73, 72, 71 B.C. During this 
time Cicero had been engaged sedulously as an advocate 
in Eome. We know the names of some of the cases in 
which he was engaged, those, for instance, for Publius 
Oppius, who, having been Qusestor in Bithynia, was accused 
by his Proconsul of having endeavoured to rob the soldiers 
of their dues. We are told that the poor province suffered 
greatly under these two officers, who were always quarrelling 
as to a division of their plunder. In this case the senior 
officer accused the younger, and the younger, by Cicero's 
aid, was acquitted. Quintilian more than once refers to the 
speech made for Oppius. Cicero also defended Varenus, 
who was charged with having murdered his brother, and 
one Caius Mustius, of whom we only know that he was a 
farmer of taxes. He was advocate also for Sthenius, a 
Sicilian, who was accused before the Tribunes by Verres. 
We shall hear of Sthenius again among the victims in 
Sicily. The special charge in this case was that, having 
been condemned by Verres as Praetor in Sicily, he had 
run away to Rome, which was illegal. He was, however, 
acquitted. Of these speeches, we have only some short 

L 2 



148 LIFE OF CICERO. 

fragments which have been quoted by authors whose 
works have come down to us, such as Quintilian; by 
which we know at any rate that Cicero's writings had been 
so far carefully preserved, and that they were commonly 
read in those days. I will translate here the concluding 
words of a short paper written by M. du Eo/oir in reference 
to Cicero's life at this period ; " the assiduity of our orator 
at the bar had obtained for him a high degree of favour 
among the people, because they had seen how strictly he 
had observed that Cincian law which forbade advocates 
to take either money or presents for their pleadings, 
which law, however, the advocates of the day generally 
did not scruple to neglect." 1 It is a good thing to be 
honest when honesty is in vogue; but to be honest when 
honesty is out of fashion is magnificent. 

In the affair with Verres there are two matters to 
interest the reader, indeed to instruct the reader, if the 
story were sufficiently well told. The iniquity of Verres 
is the first, which is of so extravagant a nature as to 
become farcical by the absurdity of the extent to which 
he was not afraid to go in the furtherance of his avarice 
and lust. As the victims suffered two thousand years ago, 
we can allow ourselves to be amused by the inexhaustible 
fertility of the man's resources and the singular iniquity 
of his schemes. Then we are brought face to face with 
the bare-faced corruption of the Roman judges, a corrup- 

1 M. du Rozoir was a French critic, and was joined with M. Gueroult and 
M. dc Guerle in translating and annotating the Orations of Cicero for M. 
Pauckoucke's edition of the Latin classics. 



VERRES. 149 

tion which, however, became a regular trade, if not 
ennobled, made at any rate aristocratic, by the birth, 
wealth, high names, and senatorial rank of the robbers. 
Sulla for certain state purposes, which consisted in the 
maintenance of the oligarchy, had transferred the privileges 
of sitting on the judgment seat from the Equites, or 
knights, to the Senators. From among the latter a con- 
siderable number, thirty perhaps, or forty, or even fifty, 
were appointed to sit with the Praetor to hear criminal 
cases of importance, and by their votes, which were recorded 
on tablets, the accused person was acquitted or condemned. 
To be acquitted by the most profuse corruption entailed 
no disgrace on him who was tried, and often but little on 
the judges who tried him. In Cicero's time the practice 
with all its chances had come to be well understood. The 
provincial governors with their Qusestors and lieutenants 
were chosen from the high aristocracy, which also supplied 
the judges. The judges themselves had been employed 
or hoped to be employed in similar lucrative service. The 
leading advocates belonged to the same class. If the pro- 
consular thief, when he had made his bag, would divide 
the spoil with some semblance of equity among his brethren, 
nothing could be more convenient. The provinces were 
so large, and the Greek spirit of commercial enterprise 
which prevailed in them so lively, that there was room 
for plunder ample at any rate for a generation or two. 
The Eepublic boasted that in its love of pure justice it 
had provided by certain laws for the protection of its 
allied subjects against any possible faults of administration 



150 LIFE OF CICERO. 

on the part of its own officers. If any injury were done 
to a province, or a city, or even to an individual, the 
province or city or individual could bring its grievance to 
the ivory chair of the Praetor in Eome and demand redress. 
And there had been cases, not a few, in which a delinquent 
officer had been condemned to banishment. Much indeed 
was necessary before the scheme as it was found to exist 
by Verres could work itself into perfection. Verres felt 
that in his time everything had been done for security as 
well as splendour. He would have all the great officers 
of state on his side. The Sicilians, if he could manage 
the case as he thought it might be managed, would not 
have a leg to stand upon. There was many a trick within 
his power before they could succeed in making good even 
their standing before the Praetor. It was in this condition 
of things that Cicero bethought himself that he might at 
one blow break through the corruption of the judgment 
seat; and this he determined to do by subjecting the 
judges to the light of public opinion. If Verres could be 
tried under a bushel as it were, in the dark, as many others 
had been tried, so that little or nothing should be said 
about the trial in the city at large, then there would be 
no danger for the judges. It could only be by shaming 
them, by making them understand that Eome would be- 
come too hot to hold them, that they could be brought 
to give a verdict against the accused. This it was that 
Cicero determined to effect, and did effect. And we see 
throughout the whole pleadings that he was concerned in 
the matter not only for the Sicilians, or against Verres. 



VERRES. 151 

Could something be done, for the sake of Eome, for the 
sake of the Eepublic, to redeem the courts of justice from 
the obloquy which was attached to them ? Might it be 
possible for a man so to address himself not only to the 
judgment seat, but to all Eome, as to do away with this 
iniquity once and for ever? Could he so fill the minds 
of the citizens generally with horror at such proceedings 
as to make them earnest in demanding reform ? Hortensius, 
the great advocate of the day, was not only engaged on 
behalf of Verres, but he was already chosen as Consul for 
the next year. Metellus, who was elected Praetor for the 
next year, was hot in defence of Verres. Indeed, there 
were three Metellus's among the friends of the accused, 
who had also on his side the Scipio of the day. The 
aristocracy of Eome was altogether on the side of Verres, 
as was natural. But if Cicero might succeed at all in 
this which he meditated, the very greatness of his opponents 
would help him. When it was known that he was to be 
pitted against Hortensius as an advocate, and that he 
intended to defy Hortensius as the coming Consul, then 
surely Eome would be awake to the occasion, and if Eome 
could be made to awake herself, then would this beautiful 
scheme of wealth from provincial plunder be brought to 
an end. 

I will first speak of the work of the judges, and of the 
attempts made to hinder Cicero in the business he had 
undertaken. Then I will endeavour to tell something of 
the story of Verres and his doings. The subject divides 
itself naturally in this way. There are extant seven 



152 LIFE OF CICERO. 

so-called Orations about Verres, of which the two first apply 
to the manner in which the case should be brought before 
the courts. These two were really spoken, and were so 
effective that Verres, or probably Hortensius on his behalf, 
was frightened into silence. Verres pleaded guilty, as 
we should say, which, in accordance with the usages of the 
court, he was enabled to do by retiring, and going into 
voluntary banishment. This he did, sooner than stand his 
ground and listen to the narration of his iniquities as it 
would be given by Cicero in the full speech, the "perpetua 
oratio " which would follow the examination of the wit- 
nesses. What the orator said before the examination of the 
witnesses was very short. He had to husband his time, as 
it was a part of the grand scheme of Hortensius to get ad- 
journment after adjournment because of certain sacred rites 
and games during the celebration of which the courts could 
not sit. All this was arranged for in the scheme ; but Cicero, 
in order that he might baffle the schemers, got through his 
preliminary work as quickly as possible, saying all that he 
had to say about the manner of the trial, about the judges, 
about the scheme, but dilating very little on the iniquities 
of the criminal. But having thus succeeded, having gained 
his cause in a great measure by the unexpected quickness 
of his operations, then he told his story. Then was made 
that " perpetua oratio " by which we have learned the extent 
to which a Eoman governor could go on desolating a people 
who were entrusted to his protection. This full narration is 
divided into five parts, each devoted to a separate class of 
iniquity. These were never spoken, though they appear in 



VERRES. 153 

the form of speeches. They would have been spoken, if 
required, in answer to the defence made by Hortensius on 
behalf of Verres after the hearing of the evidence. But the 
defence broke down altogether, in the fashion thus described 
by Cicero himself. " In that one hour in which I spoke " 
this was the speech which we designate as the " Actio prima 
contra Verrem," the first pleading made against Verres, to 
which we shall come just now, " I took away all hope of 
bribing the judges from the accused. from this brazen-faced, 
rich, dissolute, and abandoned man. On the first day of the 
trial, on the mere calling of the names of the witnesses, the 
people of Borne were able to perceive that, if this criminal 
were absolved, then there could be no chance for the Ke- 
public. On the second day his friends and advocates had 
not only lost all hope of gaining their cause, but all relish 
for going on with it. The third day so paralysed the man 
himself that he had to bethink himself not what sort of 
reply he could make, but how he could escape the necessity 
of replying by pretending to be ill." 1 It was in this way 
that the trial was brought to an end. 

But we must go back to the beginning. When an accu- 
sation was to be made against some great Eoman of the 
day on account of illegal public misdoings, as was to be 
made now against Verres, the conduct of the case, which 
would require probably great labour and expense, and would 
give scope for the display of oratorical excellence, was re- 
garded as a task in which a young aspirant to public favour 
might obtain honour, and by which he might make himself 

1 la Verrem Actio Secunda, lib. i. vii. 



154 LIFE OF CICERO. 

known to the people. It had therefore come to pass that 
there might be two or more accusers anxious to under- 
take the work, and to show themselves off as solicitous on 
behalf of injured innocence, or desirous of labouring in the 
service of the Eepublic. When this was the case, a court of 
judges was called upon to decide whether this man or that 
other was most fit to perform the work in hand. Such a 
trial was called " Divinatio," because the judges had to get 
their lights in the matter as best they could, without the 
assistance of witnesses, by some process of divination ; with 
the aid of the gods as it might be. Cicero's first speech in 
the matter of Verres is called " In Quintum Csecilium Divi- 
natio," because one Caecilius came forward to take the case 
away from him. Here was a part of the scheme laid by 
Hortensius. To deal with Cicero in such a matter would 
no doubt be awkward. His purpose, his diligence, his skill, 
his eloquence, his honesty, were known. There must be a 
trial. So much was acknowledged; but if the conduct of 
it could be relegated to a man who was dishonest, or who 
had no skill, no fitness, no special desire for success, then 
the little scheme could be carried through in that way. 
So Caecilius was put forward as Cicero's competitor, and 
our first speech is that made by Cicero to prove his own 
superiority to that of his rival. 

Whether Caecilius was or was not hired to break down in 
his assumed duty as accuser, we do not know. The biogra- 
phers have agreed to say that such was the case, 1 grounding 

1 Plutarch says that Caecilius was an emancipated slave and a Jew, which 
could not have been true as he was a Roman senator. 



VEERES. 155 

their assertion, no doubt, on extreme probability. But I 
doubt whether there is any evidence as to this. Cicero 
himself brings this accusation, but not in that direct manner 
which he would have used had he been able to prove it. 
The Sicilians, at any rate, said that it was so. As to the 
incompetency of the man, there was probably no doubt, and 
it might be quite as serviceable to have an incompetent as 
a dishonest accuser. Csecilius himself had declared that 
no one could be so fit as himself for the work. He knew 
Sicily well, having been born there. He had been Quaestor 
there with Verres, and had been able to watch the gover- 
nor's doings. No doubt there was, or had been in more 
pious days, a feeling that a Quaestor should never turn 
against the Proconsul under whom he had served, and to 
whom he had held the position almost of a son. 1 But 
there was less of that feeling now than heretofore. Verres 
had quarrelled with his Qusestor. Oppius was called on 
to defend himself against the Proconsul with whom he had 
served. No one could know the doings of the governor of 
a province as well as his own Qusestor; and therefore, so 
said Csecilius, he would be the preferable accuser. As to 
his hatred of the man, there could be no doubt as to that. 
Everybody knew that they had quarrelled. The purpose, 
no doubt, was to give some colourable excuse to the judges for 
rescuing Verres, the great paymaster, from the fangs of Cicero. 

1 De Oratore, lib. ii. c. xlix. The feeling is beautifully expressed in 
the words put into the mouth of Antony in the discussion on the charms and 
attributes of eloquence. " Qui mihi in liberum loco more majorum esse 
deberet." 



156 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Cicero's speech on the occasion, which, as speeches went 
in those days, was very short, is a model of sagacity and 
courage. He had to plead his own fitness, the unfitness of 
his adversary, and the wishes in the matter of the Sicilians. 
This had to be done with no halting phrases. It was not 
simply his object to convince a body of honest men that, 
with the view of getting at the truth, he would be the 
better advocate of the two. We may imagine that there 
was not a judge there, not a Eoman present, who was not 
well aware of that before the orator began. It was needed 
that the absurdity of the comparison between them should 
be declared so loudly that the judges would not dare to be- 
tray the Sicilians and to liberate the accused, by choosing 
the incompetent man. When Cicero rose to speak, there 
was probably not one of them of his own party, not a 
Consul, a Prsetor, an ^Edile, or a Quaestor, not a judge, not 
a Senator, not a hanger-on about the courts, but was anxious 
that Verres with his plunder should escape. Their hope of 
living upon the wealth of the provinces hung upon it. But 
if he could speak winged words, words that should fly all 
over Eome, that might fly also among subject nations, 
then would the judges not dare to carry out this portion 
of the scheme. 

" When," he says, " I had served as Quaestor in Sicily, and 
had left the province after such a fashion that all the Sicilians 
had a grateful memory of my authority there, though they had 
older friends on whom they relied much, they felt that I 
might be a bulwark to them in their need. These Sicilians, 
harassed and robbed, have now come to me, in public bodies, 



VERRES. 157 

and have implored me to undertake their defence. ' The time 
has come,' they say, ' not that I should look after the interest 
of this or that man, but that I should protect the very life 
and well-being of the whole province.' I am inclined by my 
sense of duty, by the faith which I owe them, by my pity 
for them, by the example of all good Eomans before me, by 
the custom of the Eepublic, by the old constitution, to under- 
take this task, not as pertaining to my own interests, but to 
those of my close friends." 1 That was his own reason for 
undertaking the case. Then he reminds the judges of what 
the Komaii people wished, the people who had felt with 
dismay the injury inflicted upon them by Sulla's withdrawal 
of all power from the Tribunes and by the putting the whole 
authority of the bench into the hands of the Senators. 
" The Roman people, much as they have been made to suffer, 
regret nothing of that they have lost so much as the strength 
and majesty of the old judges. It is with the desire of 
having them back that they demand for the Tribunes their 
former power. It is this misconduct of the present judges 
that has caused them to ask for another class of men for the 
judgment-seat. By the fault and to the shame of the judges 
of to-day, the Censor's authority, which has hitherto always 
been regarded as odious and stern, even that is now requested 
by the people." 2 Then he goes on to show that, if justice is 
intended, this case will be put into the hands of him whom 
the Sicilians have themselves chosen. Had the Sicilians said 
that they were unwilling to trust their affairs to Csecilius 
because they had not known him, but were willing to trust 

1 In. Q. Csec. Divinatio, ca. ii. 2 Ibid, ca. iii. 



158 LIFE OF CICERO. 

him, Cicero, whom they did know, would not even that have 
been reasonable enough of itself? But the Sicilians had 
known both of them, had known Caecilius almost as well as 
Cicero, and had expressed themselves clearly. Much as 
they desired to have Cicero, they were as anxious not to have 
Caecilius. Even had they held their tongues about this, 
everybody would have known it ; but they had been far from 
holding their tongues. " Yet you offer yourself to these 
most unwilling clients," he says, turning to Ceecilius. " Yet 
you are ready to plead in a cause that does not belong 
to you ! Yet you would defend those who would rather 
have no defender than such a one as you." l Then he attacks 
Hortensius, the advocate for Verres. "Let him not think 
that, if I am to be employed here, the judges can be bribed 
without infinite danger to all concerned. In undertaking this 
cause of the Sicilians, I undertake also the cause of the 
people of Koine at large. It is not only that one wretched 
sinner should be crushed which is what the Sicilians want, 
but that this terrible injustice should be stopped altogether 
in compliance with the wishes of the people." 2 When we 
remember how this was spoken, in the presence of these 
very judges, in the presence of Hortensius himself, in 
reliance only on the public opinion which he was to create 
by his own words, we cannot but acknowledge that it is very 
fine. 

After that he again turns upon Csecilius. " Learn from 
me," he says, " how many things are expected from him who 
undertakes the accusation of another. If there be one of 

1 Divinatio, ca. vl 2 Ibid. ca. viii.. 



7ERRES. 159 

those qualities in you, I will give up to you all that you 
ask." l Csecilius was probably even now in alliance with 
Verres. He himself, when Quaxtor, had robbed the people 
in the collection of the corn dues and was unable therefore 
to include that matter in his accusation. " You can bring 
no charge against him on this head, lest it be seen that you 
were a partner with him in the business." 2 He ridicules 
him as to his personal insufficiency. "What, Csecilius, as 
to those practices of the profession without which an action 
such as this cannot be carried on, do you think that there 
is nothing in them ? Need there be no skill in the business, 
no habit of speaking ; no familiarity with the Forum, with 
the judgment seats, and the laws? " 3 "I know well how diffi- 
cult the ground is. Let me advise you to look into it your- 
self, and to see whether you are able to do that kind of 
thing. Have you got voice for it, prudence, memory, wit ? 
Are you able to expose the life of Verres, as it must be done, 
to divide it into parts and make everything clear? In 
doing all this, though nature should have assisted you " as it 
has not at all is, of course, implied " if from your earliest 
childhood you had been imbued with letters; if you had 
learned Greek at Athens instead of at Lilybseum, Latin in 
Rome instead of in Sicily, still would it not be a task beyond 
your strength to undertake such a case, so widely thought of, 
to complete it by your industry, and then to grasp it in your 
memory ; to make it plain by your eloquence, and to support 
it with voice and strength sufficient ? " " Have I these gifts, 

1 Divinatio, ca. ix. 2 Ibid. ca. xi. 

3 Ibid. 



160 LIFE OF CICERO. 

you will ask. Would that I had ! But from my childhood 
I have done all that I could to attain them." l 

Cicero makes his points so well that I would fain go 
through the whole speech, were it not that a similar reason 
might induce me to give abridgments of all his speeches. 
It may not be that the readers of these Orations will always 
sympathise with the orator in the matter which he has in 
hand, though his power over words is so great as to carry 
the reader with him very generally even at this distance 
of time ; but the neatness with which the weapon is used, 
the effectiveness of the thrust for the purpose intended, 
the certainty with which the nail is hit on the head, never 
with an expenditure of unnecessary force but always with the 
exact strength wanted for the purpose, these are the char- 
acteristics of Cicero's speeches which carry the reader on 
with a delight which he will want to share with others, as a 
man when he has heard a good story instantly wishes to tell 
it again. And with Cicero we are charmed by the modern- 
ness, by the tone of to-day, which his language takes. The 
rapid way in which he runs from scorn to pity, from . pity to 
anger, from anger to public zeal, and then instantly to irony and 
ridicule, implies a lightness of touch which, not unreasonably, 
surprises us as having endured for so many hundred years. 
That poetry should remain to us, even lines so vapid as some 
of those in which Ovid sang of love, seems to be more natural 
because verses, though they be light, must have been laboured. 
But these words, spoken by Cicero, seem almost to ring in 
our ears as having come to us direct from a man's lips. We 

1 Divinatio, ca. xii. 



VERRES. 161 

see the anger gathering on the brow of Hortensius, followed 
by a look of acknowledged defeat. We see the startled 
attention of the judges as they began to feel that in this 
case they must depart from their intended purpose. We can 
understand how Csecilius cowered and found consolation in 
being relieved from his task. We can fancy how Verres 
suffered, Verres whom no shame could have touched, 
when all his bribes were becoming inefficient under the 
hands of the orator. 

Cicero was chosen for the task and then the real work 
began. The work as he did it was certainly beyond the 
strength of any ordinary advocate. It was necessary that 
he should proceed to Sicily to obtain the evidence which was 
to be collected over the whole island. He must rake up, too, 
all the previous details of the life of this robber. He must 
be thoroughly prepared to meet the schemers on every point. 
He asked for a hundred and ten days for the purpose of 
getting up his case, but he took only .fifty. We must 
imagine that as he became more thoroughly versed in the 
intrigues of his adversaries, new lights came upon him. 
Were he to use the whole time allotted to him, or even half 
the time, and then make such an exposition of the crinimal 
as he would delight to do were he to indulge himself with 
that "perpetua oratio " of which we hear, then the trial 
would be protracted till the coming of certain public games 
during which the courts would not sit. There seem to havo 
been three sets of games in his way, a special set for this 
year to be given by Pompey which were to last fifteen days. 
Then the Ludi Romani, which were continued for nine days. 

VOL. I. JI 



162 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Soon after that would come the games in honour of Victory, 
so soon that an adjournment over them would be obtained 
as a matter of course. In this way the trial would be thrown 
over into the next year when Hortensius and one Metellus 
would be Consuls, and another Metellus would be the 
Prastor, controlling the judgment seats. Glabrio was the 
Praetor for this present year. In Glabrio Cicero could put 
some trust. "With Hortensius and the two Metelluses in 
power, Verres would be as good as acquitted. Cicero 
therefore had to be on the alert so that in this unexpected 
way, by sacrificing his own grand opportunity for a speech, 
lie might conquer the schemers. We hear how he went to 
Sicily in a little boat, from an unknown port, so as to escape 
the dangers contrived for him by the friends of Verres. 1 If 
it could be arranged that the clever advocate should be 
kidnapped by a pirate what a pleasant way would that be of 
putting an end to these abominable reforms ! Let them get 
rid of Cicero, if only for a time, and the plunder might still 
be divided. Against all this he had to provide. When in 
Sicily he travelled sometimes on foot, for the sake of caution ; 
never with the retinue to which he was entitled as a Pioman 
Senator. As a Eoman Senator he might have demanded free 
entertainment at any town he entered, to the great cost of the 



1 Actio Secunda, lib. ii. xl. He is speaking of Sthenius, and the ille- 
gality of certain proceedings on the part of Verres against him. "If an 
accused man could be condemned in the absence of the accuser do you think 
that I would have gone in a little boat from Vibo to Velia among all the 
dangers prepared for me by your fugitive slaves and pirates, when I had to 
hurry at the peril of my life, knowing that you would escape if I were not 
present to the day ? " 



VERRES. 163 

town. But from all this he abstained, and hurried back to 
Piome with his evidence so quickly that he was enabled to 
produce it before the judges so as to save the adjournments 
which he feared. 

Verres retired from the trial, pleading guilty, after hearing 
the evidence. Of the witnesses and of the manner in which 
they told the story we have no account. The second speech 
which we have, the Divinatio or speech against Csecilius 
having been the first, is called the "Actio Prima Contra 
Verrem," " the first process against Verres." This is almost 
entirely confined to an exhortation to the judges. Cicero 
had made up his mind to make no speech about Verres 
till after the trial should be over. There would not be 
the requisite time. The evidence he must bring forward. 
And he would so appal these corrupt judges that they should 
not dare to acquit the accused. This " Actio Prima " contains 
the words in which he did appal the judges. As we read 
them we pity the judges. There were fourteen whose names 
we know. That there may have been many more is probable. 
There was the Praetor Urbanus of the day, Glabrio. With 
him were Metellus, one of the Prretors for the next year, 
and Csesonius who with Cicero himself was ^Edile designate. 
There were three Tribunes of the people, and two military 
Tribunes. There was a Servilius, a Catulus, a Marcellus. 
Whom among these he suspected we can hardly say. 
Certainly he suspected Metellus. To Servilius l he paid an 
ornate compliment in one of the written orations published 

1 Actio Secunda, 1. xxi. 

M 2 



164 LIFE OF CICERO. 

after the trial was over, from whence we may suppose that 
he was well inclined towards him. Of Glabrio he spoke 
well. The body, as a body, was of such a nature that he 
found it necessary to appal them. It is thus that he begins. 
"Not by human wisdom, oh ye judges, but by chance, and 
by the aid as it were of the gods themselves, an event has 
come to pass by which the hatred now felt for your order, 
and the infamy attached to the judgment seat, may be 
appeased. For an opinion has gone abroad, disgraceful to 
the Eepublic, full of danger to yourselves, which is in 
the mouth of all men, not only here in Eome but through 
all nations, that by these courts as they are now consti- 
tuted a man if he be only rich enough, will never be 
condemned, though he be ever so guilty." What an 
exordium with which to begin a forensic pleading before 
a bench of Judges composed of Prastors, JMiles, and 
coming Consuls ! And this at a time too when men's 
minds were still full of Sulla's power ; when some were 
thinking that they too might be Sullas ; while the idea 
was still strong that a few nobles ought to rule the Roman 
Empire for their own advantage and their own luxury ! 
What words to address to a Metellus, a Catulus, and a 
Marcellus ! I have brought before you such a w r retch, he 
goes on to say, that by a just judgment upon him you 
can recover your favour with the people of Eome, and your 
credit with other nations. " This is a trial in which you, 
indeed, will have to judge this man who is accused, but 
in which also the Eoman people will have to judge you. 
By what is done to him will be determined whether a man 



VERRES. 165 

who is guilty and at the same time rich, can possibly be 
condemned in Borne. 1 If the matter goes amiss here, all 
men will declare, not that better men should be selected 
out of your order which would be impossible, but that 
another order of citizens must be named from which to 
select the judges." 2 This short speech was made. The 
witnesses \vere examined during nine days. Then Hor- 
tensius, with hardly a struggle at a reply, gave way, and 
Verres stood condemned by his own verdict. 

When the trial was over and Verres had consented to 
go into exile and to pay whatever fine was demanded, the 
"perpetua oratio" which Cicero thought good to make on 
the matter was published to the world. It is written as 
though it was to have been spoken, with counterfeit tricks 
of oratory, with some tricks so well done in the first part 
of it as to have made me think that when these special 
words were prepared, he must have intended to speak them. 
It has been agreed, however, that such was not the case. 
It consists of a narration of the villanies of Verres, and is 
divided into what have been called five different speeches, 
to which the following appellations are given. " De Prsetura 
urbana," in which we are told what Verres did when he was 
. city Prsetor, and very many things also which he did before 
he came to that office. " De Jurisdictione Siciliensi," in which 
is described his conduct as a Eoman magistrate in the island. 
" De Re Frumentaria," setting forth the abomination of his 
exactions in regard to the corn tax. " De Signis," detailing 

1 In Verrem, Actio Prima, xvi. 2 ibid. 



166 LIFE OF CICERO. 

the robberies he perpetrated in regard to statues and other 
ornaments ; and " De Suppliciis " giving an account of the 
murders he committed and the tortures he inflicted. A 
question is sometimes mooted in conversation whether or 
no the general happiness of the world has been improved 
by increasing civilisation. When the reader finds from 
these stories as told by a leading Eoman of the day, how 
men were treated under the Eoman oligarchy, not only 
Greek allies but Eomans also, I think he will be inclined 
to answer the question in favour of civilisation. 

I can only give a few of the many little histories which 
have been preserved for us in this "Actio Secunda;" but 
perhaps these few may suffice to show how a great Eoman 
officer could demean himself in his government, Of the 
doings of Verres before he went to Sicily. I will select two. 
It became his duty on one occasion, a job which he seems 
to have sought for purpose of rapine, to go to Lampsacus, 
a town in Asia, as lieutenant, or legate, for Dolabella, who 
then had command in Asia. Lampsacus was on the Helles- 
pont, an allied town of specially good repute. Here he is put 
up as a guest, with all the honours of a Eornan officer, at the 
house of a citizen named Janitor. But he heard that another 
citizen, one Philodamus, had a beautiful daughter, an article 
with which we must suppose that Janitor was not equally 
well supplied. Verres, determined to get at the lady, orders 
that his creature Eubrius shall be quartered at the house of 
Philodamus. Philodamus, who from his rank was entitled 
to be burdened only with the presence of leading Eomans, 
grumbles at this ; but having grumbled consents, and having 



VERRES. 167 

consented, does the best to make his house comfortable. He 
gives a great supper at which the Eornans eat and drink 
and purposely create a tumult. Verres, we understand, was 
not there. The intention is that the girl shall be carried 
away and brought to him. In the middle of their cups 
the father is desired to produce his daughter. But this he 
refuses to do. Eubrius then orders the doors to be closed, 
and proceeds to ransack the house. Philodamus, who will 
not stand this, fetches his son, and calls his fellow citizens 
around him. Rubrius succeeds in pouring boiling water 
over his host, but in the row the Romans get the worst of it. 
At last one of Verres's lictors, absolutely a Roman lictor, 
is killed, and the woman is not carried off. The man at 
least bore the outward signs of a lictor, but according to 
Cicero, was in the pay of Verres as his pimp. 

So far Verres fails, and the reader rejoicing at the 
courage of the father who could protect his own house 
even against Romans, begins to feel some surprise that this 
case should have been selected. So far the lieutenant 
had not done the mischief he had intended. But he soon 
avenges his failure. He induces Dolabella his chief to 
have Philodamus and his son carried off to Laodicea and 
there tried before Nero, the then Proconsul, for killing 
the sham lictor. They are tried at Laodieea before ISTero, 
Verres himself sitting as one of the judges, and are 
condemned. Then in the market-place of the town, in 
the presence of each other, the father and son are be- 
headed, a thing, as Cicero says, very sad for all Asia to 
behold. All this had been done some years ago, and 



168 LIFE OF CICERO. 

nevertheless Yerres had been chosen Praetor and sent to 
Sicily to govern the Sicilians. 

"When Yerres was Praetor at Kome, the year before he 
was sent to Sicily, it became his duty, or rather privilege 
as he found it, to see that a certain temple of Castor in 
the city was given up in proper condition by the executors 
of a defunct citizen who had taken a contract for keeping 
it in repair. This man, whose name had been Junius, left 
a son who was a Junius also, under age, with a large fortune 
in charge of various trustees, or tutors as they were called, 
whose duty it was to protect the lad's interests. Verres 
knowing of old that no property was so easily preyed on 
as that of a minor, sees at once that something may be done 
with the temple of Castor. The heir was rich, and to the 
extent of his property he was bound to leave the edifice in 
good repair. But Yerres, when he made the inspection, finds 
everything to be in more than usually good order. There 
is not a scratch on the roof of which he can make use. 
Nothing has been allowed to go astray. Then " one of his 
dogs," for he had boasted to his friend Ligur that he always 
went about with dogs to search out his game for him, 
suggested that some of the columns were out of the per- 
pendicular. Yerres does not know what this means; but 
the dog explains. All columns are in fact, by strict measure- 
ment, more or less out of the perpendicular, as we are told 
that all eyes squint a little though we do not see that they 
squint. But as columns ought to be perpendicular here 
was a matter on which he might go to work. He does go 
to work. The trustees knowing their man, knowing also 



VERRES. 169 

that in the present condition of Rome, it was impossible 
to escape from an unjust Praetor without paying largely, 
went to his mistress and endeavoured to settle the matter 
with her. Here we have an amusing picture of the way 
in which the affairs of the city were carried on in that 
lady's establishment ; how she had her levee, took her 
bribes, and drove a lucrative trade. Doing, however, no 
good with her, the trustees settled with an agent to pay 
Verres two hundred thousand sesterces to drop the affair. 
This was something under 2000. But Verres repudiated 
the arrangement with scorn. He could do much better 
than that with such a temple and such a minor. He puts 
the. repairs up to auction, and refusing a bid from the 
trustees themselves, the very persons who are the most 
interested in getting the work done if there were work to 
do, has it knocked down to himself for five hundred and 
sixty thousand sesterces, or about 5000. 1 Then we are told 
how he had the pretended work done by the putting up 
of a rough crane. No real work is done; no new stones 
are brought ; no money is spent. That is the way in which 
Verres filled his office as Prsetor urbanus ; but it does not 
seem that any public notice is taken of his iniquities as long- 
as he confined himself to little jobs such as this. 

Then we come to the affairs of Sicily, and the long 
list of robberies is commenced by which that province 
was made desolate. It seems that nothing gave so grand 

1 We are to understand that the purchaser at the auction having named 
the sum for which he would do the work, the estate of the minor who was 
responsible for the condition of the temple, was saddled with that amount. 



170 LIFE OF CICERO. 

a scope to the greed of a public functionary who was at 
the same time governor and judge as disputed wills. It 
was not necessary that any of the persons concerned should 
dispute the will among them. Given the facts that a man 
had died and left property behind him, then Yerres would 
find means to drag the heir into Court and either frighten 
him into payment of a bribe or else rob him of his inherit- 
ance. Before he left Rome for the province he heard 
that a large fortune had been left to one Dio on condition 
that he should put up certain statues in the market-place. 1 
It was not uncommon for a man to desire the reputation 
of adorning his own city, but to choose that the expense 
should be borne by his heir rather than by himself. 
Failing to put up the statues the heir was required to 
pay a fine to Venus Erycina, to enrich, that is, the 
worship of that goddess who had a favourite temple under 
Mount Eryx. The statues had been duly erected. But, 
nevertheless, here there was an opening. So Verres goes to 
work and in the name of Venus brings an action against 
Dio. The verdict is given, not in favour of Venus but in 
favour of Verres. 

This manner of paying honour to the gods, and especially 
to Venus, was common in Sicily. Two sons 2 received a 
fortune from their father with a condition that if some 
special thing were not done a fine should be paid to 
Venus. The man had been dead twenty years ago. But 
" the dogs " which the Praetor kept were very sharp and, 

1 In Verrem, Actio Secimda, lib. ii. vii. 2 Ibid. ix. 



VERRES. 171 

distant as was the time, found out the clause. Action 
is taken against the two sons, who, indeed gain their 
case ; but they gain it by a bribe so enormous that they 
are ruined men. There was one Heraclius 1 the son of 
Hiero, a nobleman of Syracuse, who received a legacy 
amounting to 3,000,000 sesterces we will say 24,000, 
from a relative, also an Heraclius. He had, too, a 
house full of handsome silver plate, silk and hangings, 
and valuable slaves. A man, " Dives equom, dives pictai 
vestis et ami." Verres heard of course. He had by this 
time taken some Sicilian dogs into his service, men of 
Syracuse, and had learned from them that there was a 
clause in the will of the elder Heraclius that certain 
statues should be put up in the gymnasium of the city. 
They undertake to bring forward servants of the gymnasium 
who should say that the statues were never properly erected, 
Cicero tells us how Verres went to work, now in this court, 
now in that, breaking all the laws as to Sicilian jurisdiction, 
but still proceeding under the pretence of law till he got 
everything out of the wretch, not only all the legacies 
from Heraclius, but every shilling and every article left 
to the man by his father. There is a pretence of giving 
some of the money to the town of Syracuse, but for himself 
he takes all the valuables, the Corinthian vases, the purple 
hangings, what slaves he chooses. Then everything else 
is sold by auction. How he divided the spoil with the 
Syracusans, and then quarrelled with them, and how he 

1 In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. ii. xiv. 



172 LIFE OF CICERO. 

lied as to the share taken by himself, will all be found 
in Cicero's narrative. Heraclius was of course ruined. 
For the stories of Epicrates and Sopater I must refer 
the reader to the oration. In that of Sopater there is 
the peculiarity that Verres managed to get paid by every- 
body all round. The story of Sthenius is so interesting 
that I cannot pass it by. Stheuius was. a man of wealth 
and high standing living at Therma in Sicily, with whom 
Verres often took up his abode. For as governor he 
travelled much about the island, always in pursuit of 
plunder. Sthenius had had his house full of beautiful 
things. Of all these Verres possessed himself, some by 
begging, some by demanding, and some by absolute robbery. 
Sthenius, grieved as he was to find, himself pillaged, bore 
all this. The man was Eoman Praetor and injuries such 
as these had to be endured. At Therma, however in the 
public place of the city, there were some beautiful statues. 
For these Verres longed and desired his host to get them 
for him. Sthenius declared that this was impossible. The 
statues had under peculiar circumstances been recovered 
by Scipio Africanus from Carthage, and been restored 
by the Roman General to the Sicilians from whom they 
had been taken, and had been erected at Therma. There 
was a peculiarly beautiful figure of Stesichorus the poet, 
as an old man bent double, with a book in his hand; 
a very glorious work of art. And there was a goat, 
in bronze probably, as to which Cicero is at the pains 
of telling us that even he, unskilled as he was in such 
matters, could see its charms. No one had sharper eyes 



VERRES. 173 

for such pretty ornaments than Cicero or a more decided 
taste for them. But as Hortensius his rival and opponent 
in this case had taken a marble sphynx from Verres, he 
thought it expedient to show how superior he was to 
such matters. There was probably something of joke in 
this, as his predilections would no doubt be known to 
those he was addressing. 1 

In the matter Sthenius was incorruptible, and not even 
the Praetor could carry them away without his aid. Cicero 
who is very warm in praise of Sthenius declares that 
"here at last Verres had found one town, the only one 
in the world, from which he was unable to carry away 
something of the public property, by force, or stealth, 
or open command, or favour." 2 The governor was so 
disgusted with this that he abandoned Sthenius, leaving 
the house which he had plundered of everything and betook 
himself to that of one Agathinus who had a beautiful 
daughter Callidama who with her husband, Dorotheas, 
lived with her father. They were enemies of Sthenius, 
and we are given to understand that Verres ingratiated 
himself with them partly for the sake of Callidama, who 
seems very quickly to have been given up to him, 3 and 
partly that he might instigate them to bring actions against 
Sthenius. * This is done with great success, so that Sthenius 
is forced to run away and betake himself, winter as -it was, 

1 See Appendix C. 2 In Verrem, Actio Secuncla, lib. ii. ca. xxxvi. 

3 Ibid. "Una nox intercesserat, quamiste Dorotheum sic diligebat, tit 
diceres, omnia inter eos esse communia," wife and all. "Iste" always 
means Verres in these narratives. 



174 LIFE OF CICERO. 

across the seas to Rome. It has already been told that 
when he was at Rome an action was brought against him 
by Verres for having run away when he was under judgment, 
in which Cicero defended him and in which he was acquitted. 
In the teeth of his acquittal Verres persecuted the man by 
every form of law which came to his hands as Praetor, 
but always in opposition to the law. There is an audacity 
about the man's proceedings, in his open contempt of 
the laws, which it was his special duty to carry out, 
making us feel how confident he was that he could carry 
everything before him in Rome by means of his money. 
By robbery and concealing his robberies, by selling his 
judgments in such a way that he should maintain some 
reticence by ordinary precaution, he might have made 
much money, as other governors had done. But he 
resolved that it would pay him better to rob every- 
where openly, and then, when the day of reckoning came, 
to buy the judges wholesale. As to shame at such doings 
there was no such feelings left among Romans. 

Before he -comes to the story of Sthenius Cicero makes 
a grandly ironical appeal to the bench before him. " Yes ; 
O judges, keep this man ; keep him in the State ! Spare 
him; preserve him so that he too may sit with us as a 
judge here, so that he too may with impartiality advise 
us, as a Senator, what may be best for us as to peace and 
war ! Not that we need trouble ourselves as to his sena- 
torial duties. His authority would be nothing. "When 
would he dare or when would he care to come among us ? 
Unless it might be in the idle month of February, when 



VERRES. 175 

would a man so idle, so debauched, show himself in the 
Senate House? Let him come and show himself. Let 
him advise us to attack the Cretans, to pronounce the 
Greeks of Byzantium free ; to declare Ptolemy King. 1 
Let him speak and vote as Hortensius may direct. This 
will have but little effect upon our lives or our property. 
Bat beyond this there is something we must look to, 
something that would be distrusted, something that every 
good man has to fear ! If by chance this man should 
escape out of our hands, he would have to sit there upon 
that bench and be a judge. He would be called upon to 
pronounce on the lives of a Koman citizen. He would 
be the right hand officer in the army of this man here, 2 
of this man who is striving to be the lord and ruler of 
our judgment seats. The people of Borne at least refuse 
this ! This at least cannot be endured ! " 

The third of these narratives tells us how Verres managed 
in his Province that provision of corn for the use of Rome, 
the collection of which made the possession of Sicily so 
important to the Romans. He begins with telling his 
readers, as he does too frequently, how great and peculiar 
is the task he has undertaken, and he uses an argument 
of which we cannot but admit the truth, though we doubt 

1 These were burning political questions of the moment. It was as though 
an advocate of our days should desire some disgraced member of Parliament 
to go down to the house and assist the government in protecting Turkey in 
Asia and invading Zululand. 

2 "Sit in ejus exercitu_signifer." The "ejus " was Hortensius, the coming 
Consul, to whom Cicero intended to be considered as pointing. For the 
passage, see In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. ii. xxxi. 



176 LIFE OF CICERO. 

whether any modern advocate would dare to put it forward. 
We must remember, however, that Romans were not accus- 
tomed to be shamefaced in praising themselves. What 
Cicero says of himself, all others said also of themselves. 
Only Cicero could say it better than others. He reminds 
us that he who accuses another of any crime is bound to 
be especially free from that crime himself. " Would you 
charge any one as a thief? You must be clear from any 
suspicion of even desiring another man's property. "Have 
you brought a man up for malice or cruelty ? Take care 
that you be not found hard-hearted. Have you called a 
man a seducer or an adulterer ? Be sure that your own 
life shows no trace of such vices. Whatever you would 
punish in another, that you must avoid yourself. A public 
accuser would be intolerable, or even a caviller, w r ho should 
inveigh against sins for which he himself is called in question. 
But in this man I find all wickednesses combined. There 
is no lust, no iniquity, no shamelessness of which his life 
does not supply us with ample evidence." The nature of the 
difficulty to which Cicero is thus subjected is visible enough. 
As Verres is all that is bad, so must he, as accuser, be all 
that is good ; which is more, we should say, than any 
man would choose to declare of himself! But he is equal 
to the occasion. " In regard to this man, judges, I lay 
down for myself the law as I have stated it. I must so 
live that I must clearly seem to be, and always have been, 
the very opposite of this man, not only in my words and 
deeds, but as to that arrogance and impudence which you 
see in him." Then he shows how opposite he is to Verres, 



VERRES. 177 

at any rate in impudence ! " I am not sorry to see," he 
goes on to say, "that that life which has always been the 
life of my own choosing, has now been made a necessity 
to me by the law which I have laid down for myself." 1 
Mr. Pecksniff spoke of himself in the same way, but no 
one I think believed him. Cicero probably was believed. 
But the most wonderful thing is that his manner of life 
justified what he said of himself. When others of his 
own order were abandoned to lust, iniquity and shame- 
lessness, he lived in purity, with clean hands, doing good 
as far as was in his power to those around him. A laugh 
will be raised at his expense in regard to that assertion of 
his that even in the matter of arrogance his conduct should 
be the opposite of that of Verres. But this will come 
because I have failed to interpret accurately the meaning 
of those words " oris oculorumque ilia contumaeia ac superbia 
quam videtis." Verres, as we can understand, had carried 
himself during the trial with a bragging, brazen, bold face, 
determined to show no shame as to his own doings. It 
is in this, which was a matter of manner and taste, that 
Cicero declares that he will be the man's opposite as well 
as in conduct. As to the ordinary boastings, by which 
it has to be acknowledged that Cicero sometimes disgusts 
his readers, it will be impossible for us to receive a just 
idea of his character without remembering that it was 
the custom of a Eoman to boast. We wait to have good 
things said of us, or are supposed to wait. The Eoman 

1 In Verrem, Act. secunda, lib. iii. 11. 
VOL. I. r 



178 LIFE OF CICERO. 

said them of himself. The "veni, vidi, vici" was the 
ordinary mode of expression in those times, and in 
earlier times among the Greeks. 1 This is distasteful to 
us, and it will probably be distasteful to those who 
come after us, two or three hundred years hence, that 
this or that British Statesman should have made himself 
an Earl or a Knight of the Garter. Now it is thought by 
many to be proper enough. It will shock men in future days 
that great peers or rich commoners should have bargained for 
ribands and lieutenancies and titles. Now it is the way 
of the time. Though virtue and vice may be said to 
remain the same from all time to all time, the latitudes 
allowed and the deviations encouraged in this or the 
other age must be considered before the character of a 
man can be discovered. The boastings of Cicero have 
been preserved for us. We have to bethink ourselves 
that his words are 2,000 years old. There is such a 
touch of humanity in them, such a feeling of latter day 
civilisation and almost of Christianity, that we are apt to 
condemn what remains in them of paganism as though 



1 "Exegi monumentiim aere perennius," said Horace gloriously. "Sum 
pius JEne&s " is Virgil's expression, put into the mouth of his hero. " Ipse 
Menalcas," said Virgil himself. Homer and Sophocles introduce their heroes 
with self-sounded trumpetings ; 

Efyt' 'OSvfffffvs AaepTjoSrjy 'As vafft 56\ouri 
'AvOptanoiffi jueAeo, Kal yu4u K\(os ovpavbv iKti. 

Odyssey, Book ix. 19 and 20. 

'O train K\avbs Oi5/7rots Ka\ov/j.fvos. 

CEdipus Tyrannus, 8. 



VERRES. 179 

they were uttered yesterday. When we come to the 
coarseness of his attacks, his descriptions of Piso by 
and by, his abuse of Gabinius and his invectives against 
Antony, when we read his altered opinions as shown in 
the period of Caesar's dominion, his flattery of Caesar when 
in power and his exultations when Caesar has been killed, 
when we find that he could be coarse in his language and 
a bully, and servile, for it has all to be admitted, we 
have to reflect under what circumstances, under what 
surroundings, and for what object, were used the words 
which displease us. Speaking before the full court at this 
trial he dared to say he knew how to live as a man and 
to cany himself as a gentleman. As men and gentlemen 
were then, he was justified. 

The description of Verres' rapacity in regard to the corn 
tax is long and complex, and need hardly be followed at 
length unless by those who desire to know how the iniquity 
of such a one could make the most of an imposition which 
was in itself very bad, and pile up the burden till the 
poor Province was unable to bear it. There were three 
kinds of imposition as to corn. The first called the 
" Decumanum " was simply a tithe. The producers through 
the island had to furnish Eome with a tenth of their 
produce, and it was the Praetor's duty, or rather that of the 
Quaestor under the Praetor, to see that the tithe was 
collected. How Verres saw to this himself, and how he 
treated the Sicilian husbandmen in regard to the tithe is 
so told that we are obliged to give the man credit for an 

N 2 



180 LIFE OF CICERO. 

infinite fertility of resources. Then there is the "Emptum," 
or corn bought for the use of Rome, of which there were 
two kinds. A second tithe had to be furnished at a price 
fixed by the Roman Senate, which price was considered 
to be below that of its real value, and then 800,000 bushels 
were purchased, or nominally purchased, at a price which 
was also fixed by the Senate but which was nearer to the 
real value. Three sesterces a bushel for the first, and four 
for the last, were the prices fixed at this time. For making 
these payments vast sums of money were remitted to Verres, 
of which the accounts were so kept that it was hard to say 
whether any found its way into the hands of the farmers 
who undoubtedly furnished the corn. The third corn tax 
was the " sestimatum." This consisted of a certain fixed 
quantity which had to be supplied to the Praetor for the 
use of his governmental establishment, to be supplied either 
in grain or in money. What such a one as Verres would 
do with his the reader may conceive. 

All this was of vital importance to Rome. Sicily and 
Africa were the granaries from which Rome was supplied 
with its bread. To get supplies from a Province was necessary. 
Rich men have servants in order that they may live at ease 
themselves. So it was with the Romans to whom the 
Provinces acted as servants. It was necessary to have 
a sharp agent, some Proconsul or Proprretor, but when 
there came one so sharp as Verres all power of re-creating 
supplies would for a time be destroyed. Even Cicero boasted 
that in a time of great scarcity, he, being then Qucestor in 



VERRES. 181 

Sicily, had sent extraordinary store of corn over to the city. 1 
But he had so done it as to satisfy all who were concerned. 

Verres in his corn dealings with the Sicilians had a certain 
friend, companion, and minister, one of his favourite dogs 
perhaps we may call him, named Apronius, whom Cicero 
specially describes. The description I must give because it 
is so powerful, because it shows us how one man could in 
those days speak of another in open court before all the 
world, because it affords us an instance of the intensity of 
hatred which the orator could throw into his words ; but 
I must hide it in the original language, as I could not 
translate it without offence. 2 

Then we have a book devoted to the special pillage of 
statues and other ornaments which for the genius displayed 
in story- telling is perhaps of all the Verrine orations the most 
amusing. The Greek people had become in a peculiar way 



1 Pro Plancio, xxvi. " Frumenti in summa caritate maximum mimerum 
miseram ; negotiatoribus comis, mercatoribus Justus, municipibus liberalis, 
sociis abstinens, omnibus eram visus in omni officio diligentissimus." 

8 In Verrem, Act. secunda, lib. iii. ix. "Is erit Apronius ille ; qui, utipse 
non solum vita, sed etiam corpore atque ore significat, immensa aliqua vorago 
est ac gurges vitiorum turpitudinumque omnium. Hunc in omnibus stupris, 
hunc in fanorum expilationibus, hunc in impuris conviviis principem adhib- 
ebat ; tantamque habebat morum similitude conjunctionem atque concordiam, 
ut Apronius, qui aliis inhumanus ac barbarus, isti uni commodus ac disertus 
videretur ; ut qucm omnes odissent neque videre vellent sine eo iste esse 
nou posset ; ut quum alii ne conviviis quidem iisdem, quibus Apronius, hie 
iisdem etiam poculis uteretur ; postremo, ut, odor Apronii teterrimus oris et 
corporis, quern, ut aiunt, ne bestise quidem ferre possent, uni isti suavis et 
j ucundus videretur. Ille erat in tribunali proximus ; in cubiculo socius ; in 
convivio dominus ; ac turn maxime, quum, accubante praetextato prsetoris 
filio, in convivio saltare nudns coaperat." 



182 LIFE OF CICERO. 

devoted to what we generally call Art. We are much given 
to the collecting of pictures, china, bronze and marbles, partly 
from love of such things, partly from pride in ornamenting 
our houses so as to excite the admiration of others, partly 
from a feeling that money so invested is not badly placed 
with a view to future returns. All these feelings operated 
with the Greeks to a much greater extent. Investments in 
Consols and railway shares were not open to them. Money 
they used to lend at usury no doubt, but with a great chance 
of losing it. The Greek colonists were industrious, were 
covetous, and prudent. From this it had come to pass that 
as they made their way about the world, to the cities which 
they established round the Mediterranean, they collected 
in their new homes great store of ornamental wealth. This 
was done with much profusion at Syracuse, a Greek city 
in Sicily, and spread from them over the whole island. The 
temples of the gods were filled with the works of the great 
Greek artists, and every man of note had his gallery. That 
Verres, hog as he is described to have been, had a passion 
for these things, is manifest to us. He came to his death 
at last in defence of some favourite images. He had returned 
to Eome by means of Caesar's amnesty, and Marc Antony 
had him murdered because he would not surrender some 
treasures of art. When we read the "De Signis," about 
Statues, we are led to imagine that the search after these 
things was the chief object of the man throughout his three 
years of office, as we have before been made to suppose 
that all his mind and time had been devoted to the cheating 
of the Sicilians in the matter of corn. But though Verres 



VERRES. 183 

loved these trinkets, it was not altogether for himself that 
lie sought them. Only one-third of his plunder was for 
himself. Senators, judges, advocates, Consuls, and Praetors 
could be bribed with articles of vertu as well as with 
money. 

There are eleven separate stories told of these robberies. 
I will give very shortly the details of one or two. There 
vas one Marcus Heius, a rich citizen of Messana, in whose 
Louse Verres took great delight. Messana itself was very 
useful to him, and the Mamertiues, as the people of Messana 
were called, were his best friends in all Sicily. For he made 
Messana the depot of his plunder, and there he caused to 
be built at the expense of the Government an enormous 
ship called the " Cybea," l in which his treasures were carried 
out of the island. He therefore specially favoured Messana, 
and the district of Messana was supposed to have been 
scourged by him with lighter rods than those used else- 
where in Sicily. But this man Heius had a chapel, very 
sacred, in which were preserved four specially beautiful 
images. There was a Cupid by Praxiteles, and a bronze 
Hercules by Myro, and two Cancephrse by Polycletus. These 
were treasures which all the world came to see, and which 
were open to be seen by all the world. These Verres took 
away, and caused accounts to be forged in which it was 
made to appear that he had bought them for trifling sums. 

1 A great deal is said of the "Cybea" in this and the last speech. The 
money expended on it was passed through the accounts as though the ship 
had been built for the defence of the island from pirates, but it was intended 
solely for the depository of the Governor's plunder. 



184 LIFE OF CICERO. 

It seems that some forced assent had been obtained from 
Heius as to the transaction. Now there was a plan in 
vogue for making things pleasant for a Proconsul retiring 
from his government, in accordance with which a deputation 
would proceed from the Province to Rome to declare how 
well and kindly the Proconsul had behaved in his govern- 
ment. The allies, even when they had been as it were 
skinned alive by their Governor, were constrained to send 
their deputations. Deputations were got up in Sicily from 
Messana and Syracuse, and with the others from Messana 
came this man Heius. Heius did not wish to tell about 
his statues. But he was asked questions and was forced to 
answer. Cicero informs us how it all took place. " He was 
a man," he said, this is what Cicero tells us that Heius said, 
" who was well esteemed in his own country, and would 
wish you" you judges "to think well of his religious 
spirit and of his personal dignity. He had come here to 
praise Verres because he had been required to do so by his 
fellow citizens. He, however, had never kept things for 
sale in his own house, and had he been left to himself 
nothing would have induced him to part with the sacred 

* 

images which had been left to him by his ancestors as 
the ornaments of his own chapel. 1 Nevertheless, he had 
come to praise Verres, and would have held his tongue had 
it been possible." 

Cicero finishes his catalogue by telling us of the manifold 
robberies committed by Verres in Syracuse, especially from 

1 In Verrem, Actio secunda, lib. iv. vli. 



VERRES. 185 

the temples of the gods, and he begins his account of the 
Syracusan iniquities by drawing a parallel between two 
Romans whose names were well known in that city. 
Marcellus who had besieged it as an enemy and taken 
it, and Verres who had been sent to govern it in peace. 
Marcellus had saved the lives of the Syracusans. Verres 
had made the Forum to run with their blood. The harbour 
which had held its own against Marcellus, as we may read 
in our Livy, had been wilfully opened by Verres to Cilician 
pirates. This Syracuse which had been so carefully pre- 
served by its Eoman conqueror, the most beautiful of all 
the Greek cities on the face of the earth, so beautiful that 
Marcellus had spared to it all its public ornaments, had 
been stripped bare by Verres. There was the temple of 
Minerva from which he had taken all the pictures. There 
were doors to this temple of such beauty that books had been 
written about them. He stripped the ivory ornaments from 
them and the golden balls with which they had been made 
splendid. He tore off from them the head of the Gorgon 
and carried it away, leaving them to be rude doors, Goth 
that he was ! 

And he took the Sappho from the Prytaneum, the work 
of Silanion ! a thing of such beauty that no other man can 
have the like of it in his own private house ; yet Verres has 
it, a man hardly fit to carry such a work of art as a burden, 
not possess it as a treasure of his own. "What too!" he 
says, " have you not stolen Psean from the temple of 
^sculapius, a statue so remarkable for its beauty, so well- 
known for the worship attached to it, that [all the world 



186 LIFE OF CICERO. 

has been wont to visit it. What! has not the image of 
Aristseus been taken by you from the temple of Bacchus? 
Have you not even stolen the statue of Jupiter Imperator, 
so sacred in the eyes of all men, that Jupiter which the 
Greeks call Ourios? You have not hesitated to rob the 
temple of Proserpine of the lovely head in Parian marble." l 
Then Cicero speaks of the worship due to all these gods as 
though he himself believed in their godhead. As he had 
begun this chapter with the Mamertines of Messana, so he 
ends it with an address to them. "It is well that you 
should come, you alone out of all the Provinces and praise 
Verres here in Eome. But what can you say for him ? Was 
it not your duty to have built a ship for the .Republic ? You 
have built none such, but have constructed a huge private 
transport vessel for Verres. Have you not been exempted 
from your tax on corn? Have you not been exempted in 
regard .to naval and military recruits ? Have you not been 
the receptacle of all his stolen goods? They will have to 
confess, these Mamertines, that many a ship laden with his 
spoils has left their port, and especially this huge transport 
ship which they built for him ! " 

In the De Suppliciis, the treatise about punishments, as 
the last division of this process is called, Cicero tells the 
world how Verres exacted vengeance from those who were 
opposed to him, and with what horrid cruelty he raged against 
his enemies. The stories indeed are very dreadful. It 
is harrowing to think that so evil a man should have been 
invested with powers so great for so bad a purpose. But 
1 In Verrem, Actio secunda, lib. iv. Irii. 



VERRES. 187 

that which strikes a modern reader most is the sanctity 
attached to the name of a Eoman citizen, and the audacity 
with which the Eoman Proconsul disregarded that sanctity. 
" Gives Eomanus," is Cicero's cry from the beginning to the 
end. No doubt he is addressing himself to Eomans, and 
seeking popularity as he always did. But nevertheless, the 
demands made upon the outside world at large by the glory 
of that appellation are astonishing, even when put forward 
on such an occasion as this. One Gavius escapes from a 
prison in Syracuse, and, making his way to Messana, foolishly 
boasts that he would be soon over in Italy, out of the way 
of Praetor Verres and his cruelties. Verres unfortunately 
is in Messana, and soon hears from some of his friends, the 
Mamertines, what Gavius was saying. He at once orders 
Gavius to be flogged in public. " Gives Eomanus sum," 
exclaims Gavius, no doubt truly. It suits Verres to pretend 
to disbelieve this, and to declare that the man is a runagate 
slave. The poor wretch still cries " Gives Eomanus," and 
trusts alone to that appeal. Whereupon Verres puts up a 
cross on the sea-shore, and has the man crucified in sight 
of Italy, so that he shall be able to see the country of which 
he is so proud. Whether he had done anything to deserve 
crucifixion, or flogging, or punishment at all, we are not 
told. The accusation against Verres is not for crucifying 
the man, but for crucifying the Roman. It is on this occa- 
sion that Cicero uses the words which have become pro- 
verbial as to the iniquity of this proceeding. 1 During the 

1 In Verrem, Actio secunda, lib. v. Ixvi. "Facinus est vinciri civem Roman - 
um ; acelus verberari ; prope parricidium necari ; quid dicam in crucem tollere ! " 



188 LIFE OF CICERO. 

telling of this story lie explains this doctrine, claiming for 
the Eoman citizen, all the world over, some such protection 
as Freemasons are supposed to give each other, whether 
known or unknown. " Men of straw," he says, " of no 
special birth, go about the world. They resort to places 
they have never seen before, where they know none and 
none know them. Here, trusting to their claim solely, 
they feel themselves to be safe, not only where our magis- 
trates are to be found who are bound both by law and by 
opinion, not only among other Eoman citizens who speak 
their language and follow the same customs ; but abroad, 
over the whole world, they find this to be sufficient pro- 
tection." ' Then he goes on to say that if any Prsetor may 
at his will put aside this sanctity, all the provinces, all the 
kingdoms, all the free states, all the world abroad, will very 
soon lose the feeling. 

But the most remarkable story is that told of a certain 
pirate captain. Verres had been remiss in regard to the 
pirates, very cowardly indeed, if we are to believe Cicero. 
Piracy in the Mediterranean was at that time a terrible 
drawback to trade, that piracy that a year or two afterwards 
Pompey was effectual in destroying. A governor in Sicily 
had, among other special duties, to keep a sharp look-out 
for the pirates. This Verres omitted so entirely that these 
scourges of the sea soon learned that they might do almost 
as they pleased on the Sicilian coasts. But it came to pass 
that on one day a pirate vessel fell by accident into the 

1 In Verrem, Actio secunda, lib. v. Ixv. 



VERRES. 189 

haiids of the governor's officers. It was not taken, Cicero 
says, but was so overladen that it was picked up almost 
sinking. 1 It was found to be full of fine handsome men, 
of silver both plated and coined, and of precious stuffs. 
Though not "taken" it was "found," and carried into 
Syracuse. Syracuse is full of the news, and the first 
demand is that the pirates, according to Eoman custom, 
shall all be killed. But this does not suit Verres. The 
slave markets of the Eoman Empire are open, and there are 
men among the pirates whom it will suit him better to 
sell than to kill. There are six musicians, " symphoniacos 
homines," whom he sends as a present to a friend at Eome. 
But the people of Syracuse are very much in earnest. They 
are too sharp to be put off with pretences, and they count the 
number of slaughtered pirates. There are only some useless, 
weak, ugly, old fellows beheaded from day to day, and 
being well aware how many men it must have taken to 
row and manage such a vessel, they demand that the full 
crew shall be brought to the block. " There is nothing in 
victory more sweet," says Cicero, " no evidence more sure, 
than to see those whom you did fear, but have now got the 
better of, brought out to tortures or death." 2 Verres is so 
much frightened by the resolution of the citizens that he 
does not dare to neglect their wishes. There are, lying in 
the prisons of Syracuse, a lot of prisoners, Eoman citizens, 
of whom he is glad to rid himself. He has them brought 

1 In Verrem, Actio secunda, lib. v. XXT. " Onere suo plane captam atque 
depressam." 

2 Ibid xxvi. 



190 LIFE OF CICERO. 

out, with their heads wrapped up so that they shall not be 
known, and has them beheaded instead of the pirates ! A 
great deal is said, too, about the pirate captain, the arch- 
pirate as he is called. There seems to have been some money 
dealings personally between him and Verres, on account of 
which Verres kept him hidden. At any rate the arch-pirate 
was saved. " In such a manner this celebrated victory is 
managed. 1 The pirate ship is taken and the chief pirate is 
allowed to escape. The musicians are sent to Eome. The 
men who are good-looking and young are taken to the 
Frsetor's house. As many Eoman citizens as will fill their 
places are carried out as public enemies, and are tortured 
and killed ! All the gold and silver and precious stuffs are 
made a prize of by Verres ! " 

Such are the accusations brought against this wonderful 
man, the truth of which has I think on the whole been 
admitted. The picture of Eoman life which it displays is 
wonderful, that such atrocities should have been possible ; 
and equally so of provincial subjection, that such cruelties 
should have been endured. But in it all the greatest wonder 
is that there should have risen up a man so determined to 
take the part of the weak against the strong with no reward 
before him, apparently with no other prospect than that of 
making himself odious to the party to which he belonged. 
Cicero was not a Gracchus anxious to throw himself into the 
arms of the people. He was an oligarch by conviction, born 
to oligarchy, bred to it, convinced that by it alone could 

1 In Verrem, Act. secunda, lib. v. xxviii. 



VERRES. 191 

the Koman Republic be preserved. But he was convinced 
also that unless these oligarchs could be made to do their 
duty the Eepublic could not stand. Therefore it was that he 
dared to defy his own brethren and to make the acquittal of 
Verres an impossibility. I should be inclined to think that 
the day on which Hortensius threw up the sponge and Verres 
submitted to banishment and fine, was the happiest in the 
orator's life. 

Verres was made to pay a fine which was very insufficient 
for his crimes, and then to retire into comfortable exile. 
From this he returned to Eome when the Eoman exiles 
were amnestied, and was shortly afterwards murdered by 
Antony, as has been told before. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

CICERO AS ^EDILE AND PILETOK. 

THE year after the trial of Verres was that of Cicero's 
BC 69 .^Edileship. We know but little of him in the 
performance of the duties of this office, but we 
may gather that he performed them to the satisfac- 
tion of the people. He did not spend much money for their 
amusements although it was the custom of ^Ediles to ruin 
themselves in seeking popularity after this fashion ; and 
yet when two years afterwards he solicited the Prsetorship 
from the people he was three times elected as first Praetor 
in all the comitia, three separate elections having been 
rendered necessary by certain irregularities and factious 
difficulties. To all the offices, one after another, he was 
elected in his first year, the first year possible in accordance 
with his age; and was elected first in honour, the first as 
Prastor and then the first as Consul. This, no doubt, was 
partly due to his compliance with those rules for canvassing 
which his brother Quintus is said to have drawn out, and 
which I have quoted; but it proves also the trust which 
was felt in him by the people. The candidates for the most 
part were the candidates for the aristocracy. They were 
put forward with the idea that thus might the aristocratic 



CICERO AS jEDILE AND PRAETOR. 193 

rule of Eome be best maintained. Their elections were 
carried on by bribery and the people were for the most 
part indifferent to the proceeding. Whether it might be 
a Verres, or an Antony, or an Hortensius, they took the 
money that was going. They allowed themselves to be 
delighted with the games, and they did as they were bid. 
But every now and then there came up a name which 
stirred them, and they went to the voting pens, ovilia 
with a purpose of their own. When such a candidate came 
forward he was sure to be first. Such had been Marius, 
and such had been the great Pompey, and such was Cicero. 
The two former were men successful in war, who gained 
the voices of the people by their victories. Cicero gained 
them by what he did inside the city. He could afford 
not to run into debt and ruin himself during his JEdileship, 
as had been common with ^Ediles, because he was able 
to achieve his popularity in another way. It was the 
chief duty of the ^Ediles to look after the town generally, 
to see to the temples of the gods, to take care that houses 
did not tumble down, to look to the cleansing of the streets 
and to the supply of water. The markets were under them, 
and the police, and the recurrent festivals. An active man, 
with common sense, such as was Cicero, no doubt did his 
duty as ^Edile well. 

He kept up his practice as an advocate during his years 
of office. We have left to us the part of one speech and 
the whole of another spoken during this period. The former 
was in favour of Fonteius whom the Gauls prosecuted 
for plundering them as Propraetor, and the latter is a 

VOL. i. o 



194 LIFE OF CICERO. 

civil case on behalf of Csecina, addressed to the "recu- 
peratores " as had been that for Marcus Tullius. The 
speech for Fonteius is remarkable as being as hard against 
the provincial Gauls, as his speech against Verres had 
been favourable to the Sicilians. But the Gauls were 
barbarians, whereas the Sicilians were Greeks. And it 
should be always remembered that Cicero spoke as an 
advocate and that the praise and censure of an advocate 
require to be taken with many grains of salt. Nothing 
that these wretched Gauls could say against a Roman 
citizen ought to be accepted in evidence ! All the Eomans, 
he says, who have been in the Province wish well to Fonteius. 
" Would you rather believe these Gauls ? Led by what 
feeling ? By the opinion of men ! Is the opinion then 
of your enemies of greater weight than that of your fellow- 
citizens ? Or is it the greater credibility of the witnesses ? 
Would you prefer then unknown men to known, dishonest 
men to honest, foreigners to your own countrymen, greedy 
men to those who come before you for nothing, men of 
no religion to those who fear the gods, those who hate 
the empire and the name of Rome to allies and citizens 
who are good and faithful ? " 1 In every word of this he 
begs the question so as to convince us that his own case 
was weak; and when he makes a final appeal to the pity 
of the judges we are sure that Fonteius was guilty. He 
tells the judges that the poor mother of the accused man 
has no other support than this son, and that there is a 

1 Pro Fonteio, xiii. 



CICERO AS JZDILE AND PR^TOR. 195 

sister one of the virgins devoted to the service of Vesta 
who being a vestal virgin cannot have sons of her own, and 
is therefore entitled to have her brother preserved for her. 
When we read such arguments as these we are sure that 
Fonteius had misused the Gauls. We believe that he 
was acquitted because we are told that he bought a house 
in Rome soon afterwards, but we feel that he escaped by 
the too great influence of his advocate. We are driven 
to doubt whether the power over words which may be 
achieved by a man by means of natural gifts, practice, 
and erudition, may not do evil instead of good. A man 
with such a tongue as that of Cicero will make the listener 
believe almost whatever he will. And the advocate is 
restrained by no horror of falsehood. In his profession 
alone it is considered honourable to be a bulwark to 
deception and to make the worse appear the better cause. 
Cicero did so when the occasion seemed to him to require 
it and has been accused of hypocrisy in consequence. There 
is a passage in one of the dialogues, De Oratore, which has 
been continually quoted against him because the word 
"libs" has been used with approval. The orator is told 
how it may become him to garnish his good story with 
little white lies, " mendaciunculis " l The advice does 
not indeed refer to facts, or to evidence, or to arguments. 

1 De Oratore, lib. ii. lix. " Perspicitis, hoc genus quam sitfacetum, quam 
elegans, quam oratorium, sive habeas vere, quod narrare possis, quod tamen, 
est mendaciunculis aspergendum, sive fingas. " Either invent a story, or if 
you have an old one add on something so as to make it really funny. Is there 
a parson, a bishop, an archbishop, who if he have any sense of humour 
about him does not do the same ? 

o 2 



196 LIFE OF CICERO. 

It goes no further than to suggest that amount of exag- 
geration which is used by every teller of a good story 
in order that the story may be good. Such "niendaciun- 
cula " are in the mouth of every diner-out in London and 
we may pity the dinner parties at which they are not used. 
Reference is made to them now because the use of the word 
by Cicero, having been misunderstood by some who have 
treated his name with severity, has been brought forward 
in proof of his falsehood. You shall tell a story about a 
very little man and say that he is only thirty-six inches. 
You know very well that he is more than four feet high. 
That will be a " mendaciunculum " according to Cicero. 
The phrase has been passed on from one enemy to another 
till the little fibs of Cicero's recommending have been 
supposed to be direct lies suggested by him to all advocates, 
and therefore continually used by him as an advocate. They 
have been only the garnishing of his drolleries. As an 
advocate he was about as false, and about as true as an 
advocate of our own day. 1 That he was not paid, and 
that our English barristers are paid for the work they do, 
makes I think, no difference either in the innocency or 
the falseness of the practice. I cannot but believe that, 
hereafter, an improved tone of general feeling will forbid 
a man of honour to use arguments which he thinks to be 

1 Cicero, Pro Cluentio, 1., explains very clearly his own idea as to his own 
speeches as an advocate, and may be accepted perhaps, as explaining the ideas 
of barristers of to-day. "He errs," he says, "who thinks that he gets my 
own opinions in speeches made in law courts ; such speeches are what the 
special cases require, and are not to be taken as coming from an advocate as 
his own." 



CICERO AS sEDILE AND PRAETOR. 197 

untrue, or to make others believe that which he does not 
believe himself. Such is not the state of things now in 
London, nor was it at Eome in Cicero's time. There 
are touches of eloquence in the plea for Fonteius, but 
the reader will probably agree with me that the orator 
was well aware that the late governor who was on his 
trial had misused those unfortunate Gauls. 

In the year following that of Cicero's jEdileship were 
written the first of his epistles which have come to us. 
He was then not yet thirty-nine years old, B.C. 68, and 
during that year and the next seven, were written eleven 
letters, all to Atticus. Those to his other friends, " Ad 
Familiares " as we have been accustomed to call them ; " Ad 
Diversos " they are commonly called now, began only 
with the close of his consular year. How it has come 
to pass that there have been preserved only those which 
were written after a period of life at which most men 
cease to be free correspondents cannot be said with certainty. 
It has probably been occasioned by the fact that he caused 
his letters to be preserved as soon as he himself perceived 
how great would be their value. Of the nature of their 
value it is hardly possible to speak too highly. I am 
not prepared indeed to agree with the often quoted assertion 
of Cornelius Nepos that he who has read his letters to 
Atticus will not lack much of the history of those days. 1 



the question is discussed we are forced rather to wonder how many 
of the great historical doings of the time are not mentioned, or are mentioned 
very slightly, in Cicero's letters. Of Pompey's treatment of the pirates, 
and of his battling in the East little or nothing is said ; nothing of 



198 LIFE OF CICERO. 

A man who should have read them and nothing else, 
even in the days of Augustus, would not have learned 
much of the preceding age. But if not for the purpose 
of history the letters generally have, if read aright, been 
all but enough for the purpose of biography. With a 
view to the understanding of the man's character they 
have, I think, been enough. From them such a flood of 
light has been turned upon the writer, that all his nobility 
and all his defects, all his aspirations and all his vacillations 
have been made visible. We know how human he was, 
and how, too, he was only human ; how he sighed for great 
events, and allowed himself to think sometimes that they 
could be accomplished by small manreuvres; how like a 
man, he could be proud of his work and boast, how like 
a man, he could despair and almost die. But I wish it 
to be acknowledged by those who read his letters in order 
that they may also read his character, that they were, 
when written, private letters, intended to tell the truth, 
and that if they are to be believed in reference to his 
weaknesses, they are also to be believed in reference to his 
strength. If they are singularly transparent as to the 

Cesar's doings in Spain. Mention is made of Caesar's great operations in 
Gaul only in reference to the lieutenancy of Cicero's brother Quintus, 
and to the employment of his young friend Trebatius. Nothing is said 
of the manner of Caesar's coming into Rome after passing the Rubicon; 
nothing of the manner of fighting at Dyrrachium and Pharsalia ; very little 
of the death of Pompey ; nothing of Csesar's delay in Egypt. The letters 
deal with Cicero's personal doings and thoughts, and with the politics of 
Home as a city. The passage to which allusion is made occurs in the life 
of Atticus, ca. xvi., " Quse qui legat non mult urn desideret historiam 
contextam illorum temporum." 



CICERO AS JZDILE AND PRAETOR, 199 

man, opening, especially to Atticus, the secrets of his 
soul more completely than would even any girl in the 
nineteenth century when writing to her "bosom friend, 
so must they be taken as being more honestly true. To 
regard the higher aspirations as hypocritical, and only the 
meaner effluxions of his mind as emblematic of the true 
man, is both unreasonable and uncharitable. Nor, I think, 
will that reader be in the way to see the truth who cannot 
teach himself what has in Cicero's case been the effect of 
daring to tell to his friend an unvarnished tale. When 
with us some poor thought does makes its way across 
our minds we do not sit down and write it to another, 
nor if we did, would an immortality be accorded to 
the letter. If one of us were to lose his all, as Cicero 
lost his all when he was sent into exile, I think it 
might well be that he should for a time be unmanned. 
But he would either not write, or in writing would hide 
much of his feelings. On losing his Tullia some father 
of to-day would keep it all in his heart, would not maunder 
out his sorrows. Even with our truest love for our friends 
some fear is mingled which forbids the use of open words. 
Whether this be for good or for evil I will not say ; but 
it is so. Cicero, whether he did or did not know that 
his letters would live, was impeded by no such fear. He 
said everything that there was within him; being in 
this I should say quite as unlike to other Eomans of the 
day as he was to ourselves. In the collection as it has 
come to us there are about fifty letters not from Cicero, 
written to Cicero by his brother, by Decimus Brutus, by 



200 LIFE -OF CICERO. 

Plancus and others. It will I think be admitted that 
their tone is quite different from that used by himself. 
There are none indeed from Atticus, none written under 
terms of such easy friendship as prevailed when many 
were written by Cicero himself. It will probably be ac- 
knowledged that his manner of throwing himself open to 
his correspondent was peculiar to him. If this be so, he 
should surely have the advantage as well as the dis- 
advantage of his own mode of utterance. The reader who 
allows himself to think that the true character of the man 
is to be read in the little sly things he said to Atticus, 
but that the nobler ideas were merely put forth to cajole 
the public, is as unfair to himself as he is to Cicero. 

In reading the entire correspondence, the letters from 
Cicero either to Atticus or to others, it has to be remembered 
that in the ordinary arrangement of them made by Grsevius l 
they are often incorrectly placed in regard to chronology. 
In subsequent times efforts have been made to restore them 
to their proper position, and so they should be read. The 
letters to Atticus and those "Ad Diversos" have generally 
been published separately. For the ordinary purpose of 
literary pleasure they may perhaps be best read in that way. 
The tone of them is different. The great bulk of the corre- 
spondence is political, or quasi-political. The manner is 
much more familiar, much less severe, though not on that 
account indicating less seriousness, in those written to 

1 Jean George Greefe was a German, who spent his life as a professor at 
Leyden, and, among other classical labours, arranged and edited the letters 
of Cicero. He died in 1703. 



CICERO AS ^EDILE AND PRJSTOR. 201 

Atticus than in the others. With one or two signal ex- 
ceptions those to Atticus are better worth reading. The 
character of the writer may perhaps be best gathered from 
divided perusal. But for a general understanding of the facts 
of Cicero's life the whole correspondence should be taken 
as it was written. It has been published in this shape as 
well as in the other, and will be used in this shape in my 
effort to portray the life of him who wrote them. 1 

We have three letters written when he was thirty-eight, in 

B c 68 the year after his yEdileship. In the first he tells 

setat 39. j^ s f r j en( j O f the death of his cousin Lucius Cicero, 

who had travelled with him into Sicily, and alludes to the 

disagreements which had taken place between Pomponia, the 

sister of Atticus, and her husband Quintus Cicero, our Cicero's 

brother. Marcus in all that he says of his brother makes 

the best of him. That Quintus was a scholar and a man of 

parts there can be no doubt ; one, too, who rose to high office 

in the Republic. But he was arrogant, of harsh temper, cruel 



1 It must be explained, however, that continued research and increased 
knowledge have caused the order of the letters and the dates assigned to them 
to be altered from -time to time. And, though much has been done to 
achieve accuracy, more remains to be done. In my references to the letters 
I at first gave them, both to the arrangement made by Grsevius and to the 
numbers assigned in the edition I am using. But I have found that the num- 
bers would only mislead, as no numbering has been yet adopted as fixed. 
Arbitrary and even fantastic as is the arrangement of Gnevius it is better to 
confine myself to that because it has been acknowledged, and will enable my 
readers to find the letters if they wish to do so. Should Mr. Tyrrell' continue 
and complete his edition of the correspondence he will go far to achieve the 
desired accuracy. A second volume has appeared since this work of mine 
has been in the press. 



202 LIFE OF CICERO. 

to those dependent on him, and altogether unimbued with 
the humanity which was the peculiar characteristic of his 
brother. "When I found him to be in the wrong," says 
Cicero in his first letter, " I wrote to him as to a brother 
whom I loved, but as to one younger than myself, and 
whom I was bound to tell of his fault." As is usual with 
correspondents half the letter is taken up with excuses for 
not writing sooner. Then he gives commissions for the 
purchase of statues for his Tusculan villa, of which we now 
hear for the first time, and tells his friend how his wife 
Terentia sends her love though she is suffering from the gout. 
Tullia also, the dear little Tullia, " delicise nostrse," l sends 
her love. In the next, he says how a certain house which 
Atticus had intended to purchase had been secured by 
Fonteius for 130,000 sesterces, something over 1,000, taking 
the sesterce at 2d. This no doubt was part of the plunder 
which Fonteius had taken from the Gauls. Quintus is 
getting on better with his wife. Then he tells his friend 
very abruptly that his father died that year on the eighth 
day before the kalends of December, on the 24th November. 
Some question as to the date of the old man's death had 
probably been asked. He gives further commissions as to 
statues, and declares of his Tusculan villa that he is happy 
only when he is there. In the third letter he promises that 
he will be ready to pay one Cincius 170 on a certain day, 

1 The peculiarities of Cicero's character are nowhere so clearly legible as in 
his dealings with and words about his daughter. There is an effusion of love, 
and then of sorrow when she dies, which is un-Roman, almost feminine, 
but very touching. 



CICERO AS MLILE AND PRJETOR. 203 

the price probably of more statues, and gives orders to his 
friend as to the buying of books. " All my prospect of en- 
joying myself at my ease depends on your goodness." These 
were the letters he wrote when he had just ceased to be ^Edile. 
From the next two years five letters remain to us, chiefly 
noticeable from the continued commissions given by Cicero 
to Atticus for statues. Statues and more statues are wanted 
as ornaments for his Tusculanum. Should there be more 
than are needed for that villa he will begin to decorate 
another that] he has, the Formianum, near Caieta, He 
wants whatever Atticus may think proper for his " palaestra " 
and " gymnasium." Atticus has a library or collection of maps 
for sale, and Cicero engages to buy them ; though it seems 
that he has not at present quite got the money. He reserves, 
he says, all his little comings-in, " vindemiolas," what he 
might make by selling his grapes, as a lady in the country 
might get a little income from her spare butter, in order that 
he may have books as a resource for his old age. Again, he 
bids Atticus not to be afraid but what he, Cicero, will be 
able to buy them some day, which if he can do he will be 
richer than Crassus, and will envy no one his mansions or 
his lawns. He also declares that he has betrothed Tullia, 
then ten years old, to Caius Piso, son of Lucius Piso Frugi. 
The proposed marriage, which after three years of betrothal 
was duly solemnised, was considered to be in all respects 
desirable. Cicero thought very highly of his son-in-law, 
who was related to Calpurnius Piso, one of the Con- 
suls of that year. So far everything was going well with 
our orator. 



204 LIFE OF CICERO. 

He was then candidate for the Prsetorship, and was 

Bc 67 elected first, as has been already said. It was 
sstat 40. j n k a y ear 00 ^ na a j aw wag p asse( } j n Rome 

at the instance of one Gabinius, a tribune, authorising 
Pompey to exterminate the pirates in the Mediterranean 
and giving him almost unlimited power for this object. 
Pompey was not indeed named in this law. A single 
general, one who had been Consul, was to be approved 
by the Senate, with exclusive command by sea and for 
fifty miles on shore. He was to select as his own officers 
a hitherto unheard of number, all of senatorial rank. It 
was well understood when the law was worded that Pompey 
alone could fill the place. The Senate opposed the 
scheme with all its power, although, seven years before, 
it had acknowledged the necessity of some measure for 
extirpating the pirates. But jealousies prevailed, and the 
Senate was afraid of Pompey. Gabinius however carried 
his law by the votes of the people, and Pompey was 
appointed. 

Nothing tells us more clearly the wretched condition of 
things in Borne at this time than this infliction of pirates 
under which their commerce was almost destroyed. Sulla 
had reestablished the outside show of a strong government, 
a government which was strong enough to enable rich 
men to live securely in Eome ; but he had done nothing 
to consolidate the Empire. Even Lucullus in the East 
had only partially succeeded, leaving Mithridates still to 
be dealt with by Pompey. Of what nature was the 
government of the provinces under Sulla's aristocracy we 



CICERO AS sEDILE AND PRAETOR. 205 

learn from the trials of Verres and of Fonteius and of 
Catiline. The Mediterranean swarmed with pirates who 
taught themselves to think that they had nothing to fear 
from the hands of the Eomans. Plutarch declares to us, 
no doubt with fair accuracy, because the description has 
been admitted by subsequent writers, how great was the 
horror of these depredations. 1 It is marvellous to us now 
that this should have been allowed, marvellous that pirates 
should reach such a pitch of importance that Verres had 
found it worth his while to sacrifice Eoman citizens in 
their place. Pompey went forth with his officers, his 
fleets and his money and cleared the Mediterranean, in 
forty days as Plutarch says. Floras tells us that not a 

1 I annex a passage from our well-known English translation. " The power 
of the pirates had its foundation in Cilicia. Their progress was the more 
dangerous, because at first it had been but little noticed. In the Mithridatic 
war they assumed new confidence and courage, on account of some services 
which they had rendered the king. After this, the Romans being engaged in 
civil war at the very gates of their capital, the sea was left unguarded, 'and 
the pirates by degrees attempted higher things ; not only attacking ships, 
but islands and maritime towns. Many persons distinguished for their 
wealth, birth, and capacity embarked with them, and assisted in their depre- 
dations, as if their employment had been worthy the ambition of men of 
honour. They had in various places arsenals, ports, and watch-towers, all 
strongly fortified. Their fleets were not only extremely well manned, sup- 
plied with skilful pilots, and fitted for their business by their lightness and 
celerity ; but there was a parade of vanity about them, more mortifying than 
their strength, in gilded sterns, purple canopies, and plated oars ; as if they 
took a pride and triumphed in their villainy. Music resounded, and drunken 
revels were exhibited on every coast. Here generals were made prisoners ; 
and there the cities, which the pirates had seized upon, were paying their 
ransom, to the great disgrace of the Roman power. The number of their 
galleys amounted to a thousand, and the cities taken to four hundred." The 
passage is taken from the life of Pompey. 



206 LIFE OF CICERO. 

ship was lost, by the Eomans and not a pirate left on 
the seas. 1 

In the history of Rome at this time we find men of 
mark whose characters as we read, become clear to us, or 
appear to become clear. Of Marius and of Sulla we have 
a defined idea. Caesar with his imperturbable courage, 
absence of scruples, and assurance of success, comes home 
to us. Cicero, I think, we certainly may understand. 
Catiline, Cato, Antony and Brutus have left their portraits 
with us. Of Pompey I must acknowledge for myself that 
I have but a vague conception. His wonderful successes 
seem to have been produced by so very little power of 
his own ! He was not determined and venomous as was 
Marius, not cold-blooded and ruthless as was Sulla, certainly 
not confident as was Caesar, not humane as was Cicero, not 
passionate as Catiline, not stoic as was Cato, not reckless 
as was Antony, nor wedded to the idea of an oligarchy as 
was Brutus. Success came in his way, and he found it ; 
found it again and again till fortune seemed to have 
adopted him. Success lifted him higher and higher till 
at last it seemed to him that he must be a Sulla whether 
he would or no. 2 But he could not endure the idea of 



"* Floras, lib. iii. 6. " An felicitatem, quod ne una cuidam navis amissa est ; 
an vero perpetuetatem, quod ampluis piratse non fuerunt." 

2 Of the singular trust placed in Pompey there are very many proofs in the 
history of Rome at this period, but none perhaps clearer than the exception 
made in his favour in the wording of laws. In the agrarian law proposed by 
the tribune Rullus and opposed by Cicero when he was consul, there is a 
clause commanding all generals under the Republic to account for the spoils 



CICERO AS jEDILE AND PRAETOR. 207 

a rival Sulla. I doubt whether ambition would have 
prompted him to fight for the empire of the Republic, 
had he not perceived that that empire would fall into 
Caesar's hands did he not grasp it himself. It would have 
satisfied him to let things go, while the citizens called 
him 'Magnus' and regarded him as the man who could 
do a great thing if he would, if only no rivalship had been 
forced upon him. Caesar did force it on him, and then as 
a matter of course he fell. He must have understood 
warfare from his youth upwards, knowing well the pur- 
poses of a Roman legion and of Eoman auxiliaries. He 
had destroyed Sertorius in Spain, a man certainly greater 
than himself, and had achieved the honour of putting an 
end to the Servile war when Spartacus the leader of the 
slaves and gladiators had already been killed. He must 
have appreciated at its utmost the meaning of those words 
"Gives Eomanus." He was a handsome man, with good 
health, patient of labour, not given to luxury, reticent, 
I should say ungenerous, and with a strong touch of 
vanity; a man able to express but unable to feel friend- 
ship; with none of the highest attributes of manhood, 
but with all the second-rate attributes at their best. A 
capable brave man, but one certain to fall crushed beneath 
the heel of such a man as Csesar, and as certain to leave 
such a one as Cicero in the lurch. 

It is necessary that the reader should attempt to realise to 

taken by them in war. But there is a special exemption in favour of Pom- 
pey. " Pompeius exceptus esto." It is as though no tribune dared to propose 
a law affecting Pompey. 



208 LIFE OF CICERO. 

himself the personal characteristics of Pompey as from this 
time forward Cicero's political life, and his life now became 
altogether political, was governed by that of Pompey. That 
this was the case to a great extent is certain, to a sad 
extent, I think. The two men were of the same age ; but 
Pompey had become a general among soldiers 'before Cicero 
had ceased to be a pupil among advocates. As Cicero was 
making his way towards the front, Pompey was already the 
first among Romans. He had been Consul seven years before 
his proper time, and had lately as we have seen, been in- 
vested with extraordinary powers in that matter of putting 
down the pirates. In some sort the mantle of Sulla had 
fallen upon him. He was the leader of what we may call 
the conservative party. If, which I doubt, the political gover- 
nance of men was a matter of interest to him, he would 
have had them governed by oligarchical forms. Such had 
been the forms in Rome, in which, though the votes of the 
people were the source of all power, the votes hardly went 
further than the selection of this or that oligarch. Pompey 
no doubt felt the expediency of maintaining the old order of 
things, in the midst of which he had been born to high 
rank, and had achieved the topmost place either by fortune 
or by merit. For any heartfelt conviction as to what might 
be best for his country or his countrymen, in what way he 
might most surely use his power for the good of the citizens 
generally, we must, I think, look in vain to that Pompey 
whom history has handed down to us. But, of all matters 
which interested Cicero, the governance of men interested 
him the most. How should the great Ptome of his day rise 



CICERO AS jEDILE AND PRjETOR. 209 

to greater power than ever, and yet be as pure as in the days 
of her comparative insignificance ? How should Eome be 
ruled, so that Eomans might be the masters of the world, in 
mental gifts as well as bodily strength, in arts as well as in 
arms, as by valour, so by virtue ? He, too, was an oligarch 
by strongest conviction. His mind could conceive nothing 
better than Consuls, Praetors, Censors, Tribunes, and the rest 
of it, with, however, the stipulation that the Consuls, and the 
Praetors should be honest men. The condition was no doubt 
an impossible one ; but this he did not or would not see. 
Pompey himself was fairly honest. Up to this time he had 
shown no egregious lust for personal power. His hands were 
clean in the midst of so much public plunder. He was the 
leader of the conservative party. The " Optimates," or 
" Boni " as Cicero indifferently calls them, meaning as we 
should say the upper classes who were minded to stand by 
their order, believed in him, though they did not just at 
that time wish to confide to him the power which the people 
gave him. The Senate did not want another Sulla ; and 
yet it was Sulla who had reinstated the Senate. The Senate 
would have hindered Pompey, if it could, from his command 
against the pirates, and again from his command against 
Mithridates. But he, nevertheless, was naturally their head, 
as came to be seen plainly when seventeen years after- 
wards Caesar passed the Eubicon, and Cicero in his heart 
acknowledged Pompey as his political leader while Pompey 
lived. This, I think, was the case to a sad extent, as 
Pompey was incapable of that patriotic enthusiasm which 
Cicero demanded. As we go on we shall find that the worst 
VOL. i. p 



210 LIFE OF CICERO. 

episodes in Cicero's political career were created by his 
doubting adherence to a leader whom he bitterly felt to be 
untrue to himself, and in whom his trust became weaker 
and weaker to the end. 

Then came Cicero's Prsetorship. In the time of Cicero 
there were eight Praetors, two of whom were employed in 
the city, and the six others in the provinces. The ' Prsetor 
Urbanus ' was confined to the city, and was regarded as the 
first in authority. This was the office filled by Cicero. 
His duty was to preside among the judges, and to name 
a judge or judges for special causes. 

Cicero at this time, when he and Pompey were forty or 
BC 66 forty-one, believed thoroughly in Pompey. When 
setat4i. ^ e g rea t General was still away, winding up the 
affairs of his maritime war against the pirates, there came 
up the continually pressing question of the continuation of 
the Mithridatic war. Lucullus had been absent on that 
business nearly seven years, and though he had been at 
first grandly victorious, had failed at last. His own 
soldiers, tired of their protracted absence, mutinied against 
him, and Glabrio, a later Consul who had been sent 
to take the command out of his hands, had feared to en- 
counter the difficulty. It was essential that something 
should be done, and one Manilius, a Tribune, a man of no 
repute himself, but whose name has descended to all pos- 
terity in the oration " Pro Lege Manilia," proposed to the 
people that Pompey should have the command. Then Cicero 
first entered, as we may say, on political life. Though he 
had been Quaestor and JEdile, and was now Praetor, he had 



CICERO AS jEDILE AND PRJSTOR. 211 

taken a part only in executive administration. He had had 
his political ideas, and had expressed them very strongly in 
that matter of the judges which, in the condition of Eome, 
was certainly a political question of great moment. But 
this he had done as an advocate, and had interfered only as 
a barrister of to-day might do, who in arguing a case before 
the judges should make an attack on some alleged misuse 
of patronage. Now, for the first time, he made a political 
harangue, addressing the people in a public meeting from the 
rostra. This speech is the oratio " Pro Lege Manilia." This 
he explains in his first words. Hitherto his addresses had 
been to the judges, Judices ; now it is to the people, 
Quirites. " Although, Quirites, no sight has ever been so 
pleasant to me as that of seeing you gathered in crowds, 
although this spot has always seemed to me the fittest in the 
world for action and the noblest for speech, nevertheless, not 
my own will indeed, but the duties of the profession which 
I have followed from my earliest years, have hitherto hin- 
dered me from entering upon this, the best path to glory 
which is open to any good man." It is only necessary for 
our purpose to say in reference to the matter in question 
that this command was given to Pompey in opposition to the 
Senate. 

As to the speech itself it requires our attention on two 
points. It is one of those choice morsels of polished latinity 
which has given to Cicero the highest rank among literary 
men, and has, perhaps, made him the greatest writer of 
prose which the world has produced. I have sometimes 
attempted to make a short list of his chefs d'ceuvre, of 

p 2 



212 LIFE OF CICERO. 

his tit-bits as I must say if I am bound to express myself in 
English. The list would never allow itself to be short, and 
so has become almost impossible. But whenever the attempt 
has been made this short oration in its integrity has always 
been included in it. My space hardly permits me to insert 
specimens of the author's style, but I will give in an appen- 
dix, 1 two brief extracts as specimens of the beauty of 
words in Latin. I almost fancy that if properly read they 
would have a grace about them even to the ears of those to 
whom Latin is unknown. I venture to attach to them in 
parallel columns my own translation, acknowledging in de- 
spair how impossible I have found it to catch anything of 
the rhythm of the author. As to the beauty of the language 
I shall probably find no opponent. But a serious attack has 
been made on Cicero's character because it has been supposed 
that his excessive praise was lavished on Pompey with a view 
of securing the great General's assistance in his candidature 
for the consulship. Even Middleton repeats this accusation, 
and only faintly repels it. M. Du Eozoir, the French critic, 
declares that " in the whole oration there is not a word which 
was not dictated to Cicero the Praetor by his desire to become 
Consul, and that his own elevation was in his thoughts all 
through, and not that of Pompey." The matter would be 
one to us but of little moment were it not that Cicero's 
character for honesty as a politician depends on the truth or 
falsehood of his belief in Pompey. Pompey had been almost 
miraculously fortunate up to this period of his life's career. 

\ 

1 See Appendix D. 



CICERO AS jEDILE AND PRJETOR. 213 

He had done infinitely valuable service to the State. He 
had already crushed the pirates. There was good ground for 
believing that in his hands the Boman arms would be more 
efficacious against Mithridates than in those of any other 
general. All that Cicero says on this head, whatever might 
have been his motive for saying it, was at any rate true. 

A man desirous of rising in the service of his country 
of course adheres to his party. That Cicero was wrong 
in supposing that the Eepublic, which had in fact already 
fallen, could be re-established by the strength of any one 
man, could be bolstered up by any leader, has to be 
admitted. That in trusting to Pompey as a politician he 
leaned on a frail reed I admit. But I will not admit 
that in praising the man he was hypocritical or unduly 
self-seeking. In our own political contests when a sub- 
ordinate member of the Cabinet is zealously serviceable to 
his chief, we do not accuse him of falsehood because by 
that zeal he has also strengthened his own hands. How 
shall a patriot do the work of his country unless he be in 
high place ; and how shall he achieve that place except 
by co-operation with those whom he trusts? They who 
have blamed Cicero for speaking on behalf of Pompey on 
this occasion seem to me to ignore not only the necessities, 
but the very virtues of political life. 

One other remarkable oration Cicero made during his 
Preetorship, that namely, in defence of Aulus Cluentius 
Habitus. As it is the longest, so is it the most intricate, 
and on account of various legal points the most difficult 
to follow of all his speeches. But there are none perhaps 



214 LIFE OF CICEEO. 

which tell us more of the condition, or perhaps I should 
say the possibilities of life among the Eomans of that 
day. The accusation against Eoscius Amerinus was ac- 
companied by horrible circumstances. The iniquities of 
Verres as a public officer who had the power of blessing, 
or of cursing, a whole people, were very terrible. But 
they do not shock so much as the story here told of private 
life. That any man should have lived as did Oppianicus, 
or any woman as did Sassia, seems to prove a state of things 
worse than anything described by Juvenal a hundred and 
fifty years later. Cicero was no doubt unscrupulous as 
an advocate, but he could have gained nothing here by 
departing from verisimilitude. We must take the picture 
as given us as true, and acknowledge that though law 
processes were common, crimes such as those of this 
man and of this woman were not only possible, but might 
be perpetrated with impunity. The story is too long and 
complicated to be even abridged ; but it should be read 
by those who wish to know the condition of life in Italy 
during the latter days of the Republic. 

In the year after he was Praetor, in the first of the two 

BC 65 vears between his Prsetorship and his Consulship, 

setat 42. Q 65, he made a speech in defence of one 

Caius Cornelius, as to which we hear that the pleadings in 

the case occupied four days. This, with our interminable 

" causes celebres," does not seem much to us, but Cicero's 

own speech was so long that in publishing it he divided 

it into two parts. This Cornelius had been Tribune in 

the year but one before, and was accused of having 



CICERO AS jEDILE AND PRAETOR. 215 

misused his power when in office. He had incurred 
the enmity of the aristocracy by attempts made on the 
popular side to restrain the Senate ; especially by the 
stringency of a law proposed for stopping bribery at 
elections. Cicero's speeches are not extant. We have only 
some hardly intelligible fragments of them, which were pre- 
served by Asconius, 1 a commentator on certain of Cicero's 
orations; but there is ground for supposing that these 
Cornelian orations were at the time matter of as great 
moment as those spoken against Verres, or almost as those 
spoken against Catiline. Cicero defended Cornelius who 
was attacked by the Senate, by the rich men who desired 
office and the government of provinces. The law proposed 
for the restriction of bribery at elections no doubt attempted 
to do more by the severity of its punishment than can be 
achieved by such means. It was mitigated, but was still 
admitted by Cicero to be too rigorous. The rancour of 
the Senate against Cornelius seems to have been due to 
this attempt ; but the illegality with which he was charged 
and for which he was tried had reference to another law 
suggested by him, for restoring to the people the right 
of pardon which had been usurped by the Senate. Caius 

1 Asconius Pedianus was a grammarian who lived in the reign of Tiberius, 
and whose commentaries on Cicero's speeches as far as they go, are very useful 
in explaining to us the meaning of the orator. We have his notes on these two 
Cornelian orations and some others, especially on that of Pro Milone. There 
are also commentaries on some of the Verrine orations ; not by Asconius, 
but from the pen of some writer now called Pseudo- Asconius, having been 
long supposed to have come from Asconius. They, too, go far to elucidate 
much which would otherwise be dark to us. 



216 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Cornelius seems to have been a man honest and eager in 
his purpose to save the Eepublic from the greed of the 
oligarchs ; but, as had been the Gracchi, ready in his 
eagerness to push his own authority too far in his attempt 
to restrain that of the Senate. A second Tribune, in the 
interest of the Senate, attempted to exercise an authority 
which undoubtedly belonged to him, by inhibiting the 
publication or reading of the proposed law. The person 
whose duty it was to read it was stopped. Then Cornelius 
pushed aside the inferior officer, and read it himself. There 
was much violence and the men who brought the accusation 
against Cornelius, two brothers named Cominii, had to 
hide themselves, and saved their lives by escaping over 
the roofs of the houses. 

This took place when Cicero was standing for the 
Prsetorship, and the confusion consequent upon it was 
so great that it was for a while impossible to carry on 
the election. In the year after his Prsetorship Cornelius 
was put upon his trial, and the two speeches were made. 

The matter seems to have been one of vital interest in 
Borne. The contest on the part of the Senate was for all 
that made public life dear to such a body. Not to bribe, 
not to be able to lay out money in order that money 
might be returned ten-fold, a hundred-fold, would be to 
them to cease to be aristocrats. The struggles made by 
the Gracchi, by Livius Drusus, by others whose names 
would only encumber us here, by this Cornelius, were 
the expiring efforts of those who really desired an honest 
Kepublic. Such were the struggles made by Cicero himself, 



CICERO AS jEDILE AND PR^TOR. 217 

though there was present always to him an idea, with 
which in truth neither the demagogues nor the aristocrats 
sympathised, that the reform could be effected, not by 
depriving the Senate of its power, but by teaching the 
Senate to use it honestly. We can sympathise with the 
idea, but we are driven to acknowledge that it was 
futile. 

Though we know that this was so, the fragments of 
the speeches, though they have been made intelligible to 
us by the " argument " or story of them prefixed by Asconius 
in his notes, cannot be of interest to readers. They were 
extant in the time of Quintilian who speaks of them 
with the highest praise. 1 Cicero himself selects certain 
passages out of these speeches as examples of eloquence 
or rhythm, 2 thus showing the labour with which he com- 
posed them, polishing them by the exercise of his ear as 
well as by that of his intellect. We know from Asconius 
that this trial was regarded at the time as one of vital 
interest. 

We have two letters from Cicero written in the year 



1 Quint, lib. viii. 3. The critic is explaining the effect of ornament in 
oratory ; of that beauty of language which with the people has more effect 
than argument, and he breaks forth himself into perhaps the most eloquent 
passage in the whole Institute. " Cicero in pleading for Cornelius fought with 
arms which were as splendid as they were strong. It was not simply by 
putting the facts before the judges, by talking usefully, in good language and 
clearly, that he succeeded in forcing the Koman people to acknowledge by 
their voices and by their hands their admiration. It was the grandeur of his 
words, their magnificence, their beauty, their dignity, which produced that 
outburst." 

2 Orator. Ixvii. and Ixx. 



218 LIFE OF CICEItO. 

after his Prsetorship, both to Atticus, the first of which 
tells us of his probable competition for the Consulship. 
The second informs his friend that a son is born to him, 
he being then forty-two years old, and that he is 
thinking to undertake the defence of Catiline who was 
to be accused of peculation as Propraetor in Africa. 
" Should he be acquitted," says Cicero, " I should hope 
to have him on my side in the matter of my canvass. If 
he should be convicted I shall be able to bear that too." 
There were to be six or seven candidates, of whom two 
of course would be chosen. It would be much to Cicero 
" to run," as our phrase goes, with the one who among 
his competitors would be the most likely to succeed. 
Catiline, in spite of his then notorious character, in the 
teeth of the evils of his government in Africa, was from 
his birth, his connections, and from his ability supposed 
to have the best chance. It was open to Cicero to defend 
Catiline as he had defended Fonteius, and we know from 
his own words that he thought of doing so. But he did 
not; nor did Cicero join himself with Catiline in the 
canvassing. It is probable that the nature of Catiline's 
character and intentions were now becoming clearer from 
day to day. Catiline was tried and acquitted, having it 
is said bribed the judges. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

CICERO AS CONSUL. 

HITHERTO everything had succeeded with Cicero. His 
fortune and his fame had gone hand in hand. The good 
will of the citizens had been accorded to him on all possible 
occasions. He had risen surely if not quickly to the top 
of his profession, and had so placed himself there as to 
have torn the wreath from the brow of his predecessor 
and rival Hortensius. On no memorable occasion had 
he 'been beaten. If now and then he had failed to win a 
cause in which he was interested it was as to some matter 
in which, as he had said to Atticus in speaking of his 
contemplated defence of Catiline, he was not called on to 
break his heart if he were beaten. We may imagine that 
his life had been as happy up to this point as a man's life 
may be. He had married well. Children had been born 
to him, who were the source of infinite delight. He had 
provided himself with houses, marbles, books and all the 
intellectual luxuries which well-used wealth could produce. 
Friends were thick around him. His industry, his ability 
and his honesty were acknowledged. The citizens had 
given him all that it was in their power to give. Now at 
the earliest possible day, with circumstances of much more 



220 LIFE OF CICERO. 

than usual honour, he was put in the highest place which 
his country had to offer, and knew himself to be the one 
man in whom his country at this moment trusted. Then 
came the one twelvemonth, the apex of his fortunes ; and 
after that for the twenty years that followed, there fell upon 
him one misery after another, one trouble on the head of 
another trouble, so cruelly that the reader knowing the manner 
of Romans almost wonders that he condescended to live. 
He was chosen Consul we are told not by the votes but 
B c 64 ^7 the unanimous acclamation of the citizens. What 
aetat 43- wag ^ Q exac ma nner of doing this we can hardly 
now understand. The Consuls were elected by ballot, 
wooden tickets having been distributed to the people for the 
purpose; but Cicero tells us that no voting tickets were 
used in his case, but that he was elected by the combined 
voice of the whole people. 1 

He had stood with six competitors. Of these it is only 
necessary to mention two, as by them only was Cicero's 
life affected, and as, out of the six, only they seem to 
have come prominently forward during the canvassing. 
These were Catiline the conspirator as we shall have to 
call him in dealing with his name in the next chapter, 
and Caius Antonius one of the sons of Marc Antony, the 
great orator of the preceding age, and uncle of the Marc 
Antony with whom we are all so well acquainted, and 



1 De Lege Agraria, ii. 2. " Meis comitiis non tabellam, vindicem tacitse 
libertatis, sed vocem vivam prae vobis, indicem vestrarum erga me voluntatum 
ac studiorum tulistis. Itaque me .... una voce universus populus 
RomanuB consulem declaravit." 



CICERO AS CONSUL. 221 

with whom we shall have so much to do, before we get 
to the end of this work. Cicero was so easily the first 
that it may be said of him that he walked over the course. 
Whether this was achieved by the Machiavellian arts 
which his brother Quintus taught in his treatise " De 
Petitione Consulatus," or was attributable to his general 
popularity, may be a matter of doubt. As far as we can 
judge from the signs which remain to us of the public 
feeling of the period it seems that he was at this time 
regarded with singular affection by his countrymen, He 
had robbed none, and had been cruel to no one. He had 
already abandoned the profit of provincial government, 
to which he was by custom entitled after the lapse of his 
year's duty as Praetor, in order that he might remain in 
Home among the people. Though one of the Senate 
himself, and full of the glory of the Senate, as he had 
declared plainly enough in that passage from one of the 
Verrine orations which I have quoted, he had generally 
pleaded on the popular side. Such was his cleverness, 
that even when on the unpopular side, as he may be 
supposed to have been when defending Fonteius, he had 
given a popular aspect to the cause in hand. We cannot 
doubt, judging from the loud expression of the people's 
joy at his election, that he had made himself beloved. 
But nevertheless he omitted none of those cares which 
it was expected that a candidate should take. He made 
his electioneering speech "in toga Candida," in a white 
robe, as candidates did, and were thence so called. It has 
not come down to us, nor do we regret it, judging from 



222 LIFE OF CICERO. 

the extracts which have been collected from the notes which 
Asconius wrote upon it. It was full of personal abuse of 
Antony and Catiline his competitors. Such was the practice 
of Eome at this time, as it was also with us not very long 
since. We shall have more than enough of such eloquence 
before we have done our task. When we come to the 
language in which Cicero spoke of Clodius his enemy, of Piso 
and Gabinius the Consuls who allowed him to be banished, 
and of Marc Antony, his last great opponent, the nephew of 
the man who was now his colleague, we shall have very much 
of it. It must again be pleaded that the foul abuse which fell 
from other lips has not been preserved ; and that Cicero there- 
fore must not be supposed to have been more foul-mouthed 
than his rivals. We can easily imagine that he was more 
bitter than others, because he had more power to throw into 
his words the meaning which he intended them to convey. 
Antony was chosen as Cicero's colleague. It seems from 
such evidence as we are able to get on the subject that 
Cicero trusted Antony no better than he did Catiline, but 
appreciating the wisdom of the maxim, " divide et impera," 
separate your enemies and you will get the better of 
them, which was no doubt known as well then as now, 
he soon determined to use Antony as his ally against 
Catiline who was presumed to reckon Anthony among his 
fellow conspirators. Sallust puts into the mouth of 
Catiline a declaration to this effect, 1 and Cicero did use 

1 Sail. Conj. Catilinaria, xxi. " Petere consulatum C. Antouium, quern 
sibi collegam fore speraret, hominem et familiarem, et omnibus necessitudi- 
riibus circurnveutum." Sallust would no doubt have put anything into 



CICERO AS CONSUL. 223 

Antony for the purpose. The story of Catiline's conspiracy 
is so essentially the story of Cicero's Consulship, that I 
may be justified in hurrying over the other events of his 
year's rule ; but still there is something that must be 
told. Though Catiline's conduct was under his eye during 
the whole year it was not till October that the affairs in 
which we shall have to interest ourselves commenced. 

Of what may have been the nature of the administrative 
work done by the great Eoman officers of state we know 
very little. Perhaps I might better say that we know 
nothing. Men, in their own diaries, when they keep them, 
or even in their private letters, are seldom apt to say 
much of those daily doings which are matter of routine 
to themselves and are by them supposed to be as little 
interesting to others. A Prime Minister with us, were he 
as prone to reveal himself in correspondence as was Cicero 
with his friend Atticus, would hardly say when he went 
to the Treasury Chambers or what he did when he got 
there. We may imagine that to a Cabinet Minister even 
a Cabinet Council would after many sittings become a 
matter of course. A leading barrister would hardly leave 
behind him a record of his work in chambers. It has 
thus come to pass that though we can picture to ourselves 
a Cicero before the judges, or addressing the people from 
the rostra, or uttering his opinion in the Senate, we know 
nothing of him as he sat in his office and did his 



Catiline's mouth which would suit his own purpose ; but it was necessary 
for his purpose that he should confine himself to credibilities. 



224 LIFE OF CICERO. 

consular work. We cannot but suppose that there must 
have been an office with many clerks. There must have 
been heavy daily work. The whole operation of govern- 
ment was under the Consul's charge, and to Cicero, with 
a Catiline on his hands, this must have been more than 
usually heavy. How he did it, with what assistance, 
sitting at what writing-table, dressed in what robes, with 
what surroundings of archives and red tape, I cannot make 
manifest to myself. I can imagine that there must have 
been much of dignity, as there was with all leading 
Romans, but beyond that I cannot advance even in fancying 
what was the official life of a Consul. 

In the old days the Consul used as a matter of course 
to go out and do the righting. When there was an enemy 
here, or an enemy there, the Consul was bound to hurry 
off with his army, north or south, to different parts of 
Italy. But gradually this system became impracticable. 
Distances became too great, as the empire extended itself 
beyond the bounds of Italy, to admit of the absence of 
the Consuls. Wars prolonged themselves through many cam- 
paigns, as notably did that which was soon to take place 
in Gaul under Caesar. The Consuls remained at home, and 
Generals were sent out with proconsular authority. This 
had become so certainly the case that Cicero on becoming 
Consul had no fear of being called on to fight the enemies 
of his country. There was much fighting then in course 
of being done by Pompey in the East. But this would give 
but little trouble to the great officers at home, unless it 
might be in sending out necessary supplies. 



CICERO AS CONSUL. 225 

The Consul's work however, was severe enough. We 
find from his own words in a letter to Atticus written 
in the year but one after his Consulship, 61 B.C., that as 
Consul he made twelve public addresses. Each of them 
must have been a work of labour, requiring a full mastery 
over the subject in hand, and an arrangement of words very 
different in their polished perfection from the generality 
of parliamentary speeches to which we are accustomed. 
The getting up of his cases must have taken great time. 
Letters went slowly and at a heavy cost. Writing must 
have been tedious when that most common was done with 
a metal point on soft wax. An advocate who was earnest 
in a case had to do much for himself. We have heard 
how Cicero made his way over to Sicily, creeping in a 
little boat through the dangers prepared for him, in order 
that he might get up the evidence against Verres. In 
defending Aulus Cluentius. when he was Praetor, Cicero 
must have found the work to have been immense. In 
preparing the attack upon Catiline it seems that every 
witness was brought to himself. There were four Catiline 
speeches made in the year of his Consulship, but in the 
same year many others were delivered by him. He 
mentions, as we shall see just now, twelve various speeches 
made in the year of his Consulship. 

I imagine that the words spoken can in no case have 
been identical with those which have come to us, which 
were, as we may say, prepared for the press by Tiro his 
slave and secretary. We have evidence as to some of 
them, especially as to the second Catiline oration, that 

VOL. I. Q 



226 LIFE OF CICERO. 

time did not admit of its being written and learned by 
heart after the occurrence "of the circumstances to which 
it alludes. It needs must have been extemporary, with 
such mental preparation as one night may have sufficed 
to give him. How the words may have been taken down 
in such a case we do not quite know, but we are aware 
that shorthand writers were employed though there can 
hardly have been a science of stenography perfected as 
is that with us. 1 The words which we read were probably 
much polished before they were published, but how far 
this was done we do not know. What we do know is 
that the words which he spoke, moved, convinced and 
charmed those who heard them, as do the words we read, 
move, convince and charm us. Of these twelve consular 
speeches Cicero gives a special account to his friend. " I 
will send you," he says, " the speechlings 2 which you require 
as well as some others, seeing that those which I have 
written out at the request of a few young men, please you 



1 Cicero himself tells us that many shorthand [writers were sent by 
him, " Plures librarii," as he calls them, to take down the words of the 
Agrarian law which Rullus proposed. De Lege Agra. ii. 5. Pliny, Quintilian 
and Martial speak of these men as Notarii. Martial explains the nature of 
their business 

" Currant verba licet, manus est velocior illis ; 

Nondum lingua suum, dextra peregit opus." xiv. 208. 

2 Ad Att. ii. 1. " Oratiunculas," he calls them. It would seem here that 
he pretends to have preserved these speeches only at the request -?of some 
admiring young friends. Demosthenes of course was the "fellow citizen," 
so called in badinage, because Atticus, deserting Rome, lived much at Athens. 



CICERO AS CONSUL. 227 

also. It was an advantage to me here to follow the example 
of that fellow citizen of yours in those orations which he 
called his Philippics. In these he brightened himself up, 
and discarded his 'nisi prius' way of speaking, so that 
he might achieve something more dignified, something 
more statesmanlike. So I have done with these speeches 
of mine which may be called ' consulares,' " as having 
been made not only in his consular year but also with 
something of consular dignity. " Of these one, on the 
new land laws proposed, was spoken in the Senate on 
the Calends of January, the second on the same subject 
to the people. The third was respecting Otho's law. 1 
The fourth was in defence of Rabirius. 2 The fifth -was in 
reference to the children of those who had lost their property 
and their rank under Sulla's proscription. 3 The sixth was 
an address to the people and explained why I renounced 
my provincial government. 4 The seventh drove Catiline 

1 This speech, which has been lost, was addressed to the people with the 
view of reconciling them to a law in accordance with which the Equites were 
entitled to special seats in the theatre. It was altogether successful. 

2 This, which is extant, was spoken in defence of an old man who was 
accused of a political homicide thirty-seven years before, of having killed, 
that is, Saturni-nus the Tribune. Cicero was unsuccessful, but Rabirius was 
saved by the common subterfuge of an interposition of omens. There are 
some very fine passages in this oration. 

3 This has been lost. Cicero, though he acknowledged the iniquity of 
Sulla's proscriptions, showed that their effects could not new be reversed 
without further revolutions. He gained his point on this occasion. 

4 This has been lost. Cicero, in accordance with the practice of the time, 
was entitled to the government of a province when ceasing to be Consul. 
The rich province of Macedonia fell to him by lot, but he made it over to his 
colleague Antony, thus purchasing if not Antony's co-operation, at any rate 

Q 2 



228 LIFE OF CICERO. 

out of the city. The eighth was addressed to the people 
the day after Catiline fled. The ninth was again spoken 
to the people, on the day on which the Allobroges gave 
their evidence. Then again the tenth was addressed to 
the Senate on the fifth of December," also respecting 
Catiline. " There are also two short supplementary speeches 
on the Agrarian war. You shall have the whole body of 
them. As what I write and what I do are equally in- 
teresting to you you will gather from the same documents 
all nay doings and all my sayings." 

It is not to be supposed that in this list are contained 
all the speeches which he made in his consular year, but 
those only which he made as Consul, those to which he 
was desirous of adding something of the dignity of states- 
manship, something beyond the weight attached to his 
pleadings as a lawyer. As an advocate, Consul though he 
was, he continued to perform his work, from whence we 
learn that no state dignity was so high as to exempt an 
established pleader from the duty of defending his friends. 
Hortensius, when Consul elect, had undertaken to defend 
Verres. Cicero defended Murena when he was Consul. He 
defended C. Calpurnius Piso also, who was accused, as were 
so many, of proconsular extortion ; but whether in this 
year or in the preceding is not I think known. 1 Of his 

his quiescence, in regard to Catiline. He also made over the province of 
Gail, which then fell to his lot, to Metellus, not wishing to leave the city. 
All this had to be explained to the people. 

1 It will be seen that he also defended Babirius in his consular year, but 
had thought fit to include that among his consular speeches. Some doubt 
lias been thrown, especially by Mr. Tyrrell, on the genuineness of Cicero's 



CICEEO AS CONSUL. 229 

speecli on that occasion we have nothing remaining. Of 
his pleading for Murena we have, if not the whole, the 
material part, and, though nobody cares very much for 
Murena now, the oration is very amusing. It was made 
towards the end of the year, on the 20th of November, after 
the second Catiline oration, and before the third, at the 
very moment in which Cicero was fully occupied with the 
evidence on which he intended to convict Catiline's fellow 
conspirators. As I read it I am carried away by wonder 
rather than admiration at the energy of the man who could 
at such a period of his life give up his time to master the 
details necessary for the trial of Murena. 

Early in the year Cicero had caused a law to be passed, 
which after him was called the Lex Tullia, increasing the 
stringency of the enactments against bribery on the part of 
consular candidates. His intention had probably been to 
hinder Catiline, who was again about to become a candidate. 
But Murena, who was elected, was supposed to have been 
caught in the meshes of the net, and also Silanus, the other 
Consul designate. Cato, the man of stern nature, the great 
stoic of the day, was delighted to have an opportunity of 
proceeding against some one, and not very sorry to attack 
Murena with weapons provided from the armoury of 

letter giving the list of his " oratiunculas consulares," because the speeches 
Pro Murena and Pro Pisone are omitted, and as containing some "rather 
un-Ciceronian expressions." My respect for Mr. Tyrrell's scholarship and 
judgment is so great that I hardly dare to express an opinion contrary to 
his ; but I should be sorry to exclude a letter so Ciceronian in its feeling. 
And if we are to have liberty to exclude without evidence, where are we to 
stop ? 



230 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Murena's friend, Cicero. Silanus, however, who happened to 
be cousin to Cato, was allowed to pass unmolested. Sul- 
picius, who was one of the disappointed candidates, Cato, 
and Postumius were the accusers. Hortensius, Crassus, and 
Cicero, were combined together for the defence of Murena. 
But as we read the single pleading that has come to us we 
feel that, unlike those Koman trials generally, this was 
carried on without any acrimony on either side. I think it 
must have been that Cato wished to have an opportunity of 
displaying his virtue, but it had been arranged that Murena 
was to be acquitted. Murena was accused among other 
things of dancing ! Greeks might dance, as we hear from 
Cornelius Nepos, 1 but for a Roman Consul it would be 
disgraceful in the highest extreme. A lady indeed might 
dance, but not much. Sallust tells us of Sempronia, who 
was indeed a very bad female if all that he says of her 
be true, that she danced more elegantly than became an 
honest woman. 2 She was the wife of a Consul. But a male 
lioman of high standing might not dance at all. Cicero 
defends his friend by showing how impossible it was, how 
monstrous the idea. "No man would dance unless drunk 
or rnad." Nevertheless, I imagine that Murena had danced. 

Cicero seizes an opportunity of quizzing Cato for his 
stoicism, and uses it delightfully. Horace was not more 
happy when in defence of Aristippus he declared that any 

1 Corn. Nepo. Epaminondas, I. "We know that with us," Romans, 
"music is foreign to the employments of a great man. To dance would 
amount to a vice. But these things among the Greeks are not only pleasant 
but praiseworthy." 

2 Couj. Catilinaria, 3xv. 



CICERO AS CONSUL. 231 

philosopher would turn up his nose at cabbage if he could 
get himself asked to the tables of rich men. 1 " There was 
one Zeno," Cicero says, "who laid down laws. No wise 
man would forgive any fault. No man worthy of the name 
of man would allow himself to be pitiful. Wise men are 
beautiful, even though deformed, rich though penniless. 
Kings though they be slaves. We who are not wise are 
mere exiles, runagates, enemies of our country and madmen. 
Any fault is an unpardonable crime. To kill an old cock 
if you do not want it is as bad as to murder your father ! " 
And these doctrines, he goes on to say, which are used by 
most of us merely as something to talk about, this man, 
Cato, absolutely believes, and tries to live by them. I shall 
have to refer back to this when I speak of Cicero's philo- 
sophy more at length, but his common sense crops up 
continually in the expressions which he uses for defending 
the ordinary conditions of a man's life in opposition to that 
impossible superiority to mundane things which the philo- 
sophers professed to teach their pupils. He turns to Cato 
and asks him questions, which he answers himself with 
his own philosophy, " Would you pardon nothing ? Well ; 
yes ; but not all things. Would you do nothing for friend- 
ship ? Sometimes ; unless duty should stand in the way- 
Would you never be moved to pity? I would maintain 
my habit of sincerity, but something must no doubt be 

1 Horace, Epis. i. xvii : 

" Si sciret regibus uti 
Fastidiret olus qui me notat. " 

2 Pro Murena, xxix. 



232 LIFE OF CICERO. 

allowed to humanity. It is good to stick to your opinion ; 
but only until some better opinion shall have prevailed 
with you." In all this the humanity of our Cicero as 
opposed equally to the impossible virtue of a Cato or the 
abominable vice of a Verres, is in advance of his age and 
reminds us of what Christ has taught us. 

But the best morsel in the whole oration is that in which 
he snubs the lawyers. It must be understood that Cicero 
did not pride himself on being a lawyer. He was an ad- 
vocate, and if he wanted law there were those of an inferior 
grade to whom he could go to get it. In truth he did 
understand the law, being a man of deep research, who 
inquired into everything. As legal points had been raised 
he thus addresses Sulpicius, who seems to have affected a 
knowledge of jurisprudence, who had been a candidate for 
the Consulship, and who was his own intimate friend. " I 
must put you out of your conceit," he says ; " it was your 
other gifts, not a knowledge of the laws, your moderation, 
your wisdom, your justice, which in my opinion, made you 
worthy of being loved. I will not say you threw away your 
time in studying law, but it was not thus you made your- 
self worthy of the Consulship. 1 That power of eloquence, 
majestic and full of dignity, which has so often availed 
in raising a man to the Consulship, is able by its words to 
move the minds of the Senate and the people, and the 



1 Pro Murena, x. This Sulpicius was afterwards Consul with M. Marcellus, 
and in the days of the Philippics was sent as one of a deputation to Antony. 
lie died while on the journey. He is said to have been a man of excellent 
character. and a thorough-going Conservative. 



CICERO AS CONSUL. 233 

judges. 1 But in such a poor science as that of law what 
honour can there be ? Its details are taken up with mere 
words and fragments of words. 2 They forget all equity in 
points of law and stick to the mere letter." 3 He goes 
through a presumed scene of chicanery, which, Consul as 
he was, he must have acted before the judges and the people, 
no doubt to the extreme delight of them all. At last he 
says, "Full .as I am of business, if you raise my wrath 
I will, make myself a lawyer and learn it all in three 
days." 4 From these and many other passages in Cicero's 
writings and speeches, and also from Quintilian, we learn 
that a Eoman advocate was by no means the same as an 
English barrister. The science which he was supposed to 
have learned was simply that of telling his story in effective 
language. It no doubt came to pass that he had much to 
do in getting up the details of his story, what we may 
call the evidence. But he looked elsewhere, to men of 
another profession, for his law. The " Juris-consultus " or 
the "Juris peritus," was the lawyer, and as such was 
regarded as being of much less importance than the 
"patronus" or advocate, who stood before the whole city 
and pleaded the cause. In this trial of Murena, who was 
by trade a soldier, it suited Cicero to belittle lawyers and 
to extol the army. When he is telling Sulpicius that it 
was not by being a lawyer that a man could become Consul, 
he goes on to praise the high dignity of his client's 
profession. "The greatest glory is achieved by those who 

1 Pro Murena, xi. 2 Ib. xi. 

8 Ib. xii. * Ib. xiii. 






234 LIFE OF CICERO. 

excel in battle. All our empire, all our republic is defended 
and made strong by them. " l It was thus that the advocate 
could speak ! This comes from the man who always took 
glory to himself in declaring that the "toga" was superior 
to helmet and shield ! He had already declared that they 
erred who thought that they were going to get his own 
private opinion in speeches made in law courts. 2 He knew 
how to defend his friend Murena, who was a soldier, and 
in doing so could say very sharp things, though yet in joke, 
against his friend Sulpicius, the lawyer. But in truth few 
men understood the Bo man law better than did Cicero. 

But we must go back to that agrarian law respecting 
which, as he tells us, four of his consular speeches were 
made. This had been brought forward by Eullus, one of 
the Tribunes, towards the end of the last year. The 
Tribunes came into office in December, whereas at this 
period of the Republic, the Consuls were in power only 
on and from January 1st. Cicero, who had been unable 
to get the particulars of the new law till it had been 
proclaimed, had but a few days to master its details. It 
was to his thinking altogether revolutionary. We have the 
words of many of the clauses, and though it is difficult at 
this distance of time to realise what would have been its 
effect, I think we are entitled to say that it was intended 
to subvert all property. Property, speaking of it generally, 
cannot be destroyed. The land remains, and the combined 
results of man's industry are too numerous, too large, and 



1 Pro Mureua, xi. " Pro Cluentio, 1. 



CICERO AS CONSUL. . 235 

too lasting to become a wholesale prey to man's anger or 
madness. Even the elements when out of order can do 
but little towards perfecting destruction. A deluge is 
wanted ; or that crash of doom which, whether it is to 
come or not, is believed by the world to be very distant. 
But it is within human power to destroy possession and 
redistribute the goods which industry, avarice, or perhaps 
injustice have congregated. They who own property are in 
these days so much stronger than those who have none that 
an idea of any such redistribution does not create much alarm 
among the possessors. The spirit of communism does not 
prevail among people who have learned that it is in truth 
easier to earn than to steal. But with the Eomans political 
economy had naturally not advanced so far as with us. 
A subversion of property had to a great extent taken place 
no later than in Sulla's time. How this had been effected 
the story of the property of Eoscius Amerinus has ex- 
plained to us. Under Sulla's enactments no man with a 
house, with hoarded money, with a family of slaves, with 
rich ornaments, was safe. Property had been made to 
change hands recklessly, ruthlessly, violently by the illegal 
application of a law promulgated by a single individual, 
who, however, had himself been instigated by no other idea 
than that of re-establishing the political order of things 
which he approved. Rullus, probably with other motives, 
was desirous of effecting a subversion which, though equally 
great, should be made altogether in a different direction. 
The ostensible purpose was something as follows. As the 
Eoman people had by their valour and wisdom achieved 



236 LIFE OF CICERO. 

for Eome great victories and therefore great wealth, they, 
as Eoman citizens, were entitled to the enjoyment of what 
they had won; whereas, in fact, the sweets of victory fell 
to the lot only of a few aristocrats. For the reform of this 
evil it should be enacted that all public property which had 
been thus acquired, whether land or chattels, should be sold, 
and with the proceeds other lands should be bought fit for 
the use of Eoman citizens, and be given to those who should 
choose to have it. It was specially suggested that the rich 
country called the Campania, that in which Naples now 
stands with its adjacent isles, should be bought up and 
given over to a great Eoman colony. For the purpose of 
carrying out this law ten magistrates should be appointed 
with plenipotentiary power both as to buying and selling. 
There were many underplots in this. No one need sell 
unless he chose to sell. But at this moment much land 
was held by no other title than that of Sulla's proscriptions. 
The present possessors were in daily fear of dispossession 
by some new law made with the object of restoring their 
property to those who had been so cruelly robbed. These 
would be very glad to get any price in hand for land of 
which their tenure was so doubtful; and these were the 
men whom the "decemviri," or ten magistrates, would be 
anxious to assist. We are told that the father-in-law of 
Eullus himself had made a large acquisition by his use of 
Sulla's proscriptions. And then there would be the in- 
stantaneous selling of the vast districts obtained by conquest, 
and now held by the Eoman State. When so much land 
would be thrown into the market, it would be sold very 



CICERO AS CONSUL. 237 

cheap, and would be sold to those whom the " decemviri " 
might choose to favour ! We can hardly now hope to un- 
ravel all the intended details, but we may be sure that 
the basis on which property stood would have been al- 
together changed by the measure. The " decemviri " were 
to have plenary power for ten years. All the taxes in all 
the provinces were to be sold, or put up to market. 
Everything supposed to belong to the Eoman State was to 
be sold in every province, for the sake of collecting together 
a huge sum of money which was to be divided in the shape 
of land among the poorer Romans. Whatever may have 
been the private intentions of Eullus, whether good or bad 
it is evident, even at this distance of time, that a re-dis- 
tribution of property was intended which can only be 
described as a general subversion. To this the new Consul 
opposed himself vehemently, successfully, and, we must 
needs say, patriotically. 

The intense interest which Cicero threw into his work 
is as manifest in these agrarian orations as in those subse- 
quently made as to the Catiline conspiracy. He ascends in 
his energy to a dignity of self-praise which induces the reader 
to feel that a man who could so speak of himself without 
fear of contradiction had a right to assert the supremacy of 
his own character and intellect. He condescends on the 
other hand to a virulence of personal abuse against Eullus 
which, though it is to our taste offensive, is, even to us, 
persuasive, making us feel that such a man should not have 
undertaken such a work. He is describing the way in which 
the bill was first introduced ; " Our Tribunes at last enter 



238 LIFE OF CICERO. 

upon their office. The harangue to be made by Eullus is 
especially expected. He is the projector of the law, and it 
was expected that he would carry himself with an air of 
special audacity. When he was only Tribune-elect he began 
to put on a different countenance, to speak with a different 
voice, to walk with a different step. "We all saw how he 
appeared with soiled raiment, with his person uncared for 
and foul with dirt, with his hair and beard uncombed and 
untrimmed." 1 In Eome, men under afflictions, particularly 
if under accusation, showed themselves in soiled garments 
so as to attract pity, and the meaning here is that Eullus 
went about as though under grief at the condition of his 
poor fellow citizens who were distressed by the want of this 
agrarian law. No description could be more likely to turn an 
individual into ridicule than this of his taking upon himself 
to represent in his own person the sorrows of the city. The 
picture of the man with the self-assumed garments of public 
woe, as though he were big enough to exhibit the grief of all 
Eome, could not but be effective. It has been supposed that 
Cicero was insulting the Tribune because he was dirty. Not 
so. He was ridiculing Eullus because Eullus had dared to go 
about in mourning, " sordidatus," on behalf of his country. 
But the tone in which Cicero speaks of himself is mag- 
nificent. It is so grand as to make us feel that a Consul 
of Eome who had the cares of Eome on his shoulders, was 
entitled to declare his own greatness to the Senate and to 
the people. There are the two important orations, that 

1 De Lege Agraria, ii. 5. 



CICERO AS CONSUL, 239 

spoken first in the Senate, and then the speech to the 
people from which I have already quoted the passage 
personal to Rullus. In both of them he declares his own 
idea of a Consul and of himself as Consul. He has been 
speaking of the effect of the proposed law on the revenues 
of the State, and then proceeds, " But I pass by what I 
have to say on that matter and reserve it for the people. 
I speak now of the danger which menaces our safety and 
our liberty. For what will there be left to us untouched 
in the Eepublic, what will remain of your authority and 
freedom, when Eullus, and those whom you fear much more 
than Eullus, 1 with this band of ready knaves, with all the 
rascaldom of Eome, laden with gold and silver, shall have 
seized on Capua and all the cities round ? To all this, 
Senators," Patres conscripti he calls them, " I will oppose 
what power I have. As long as I am Consul I will not 
suffer them to carry out their designs against the Eepublic. 

" But you, Eullus, and those who are with you, have been 
mistaken grievously in supposing that you will be regarded 
as friends of the people in your attempts to subvert the 
Eepublic in opposition to a Consul who is known in very 
truth to be the people's friend. I call upon you, I invite 
you to meet me in the assembly. Let us have the people 
of Eome as a judge between us. Let us look round and see 



1 He alludes here to his own colleague Antony, whom through his whole 
year of office he had to watch lest the second Consul should join the enemies 
whom he fears, should support Rullus or go over to Catiline. With this 
view, choosing the lesser of the two evils, he bribes Antony with the govern- 
ment of Macedonia. 



240 LIFE OF CICERO. 

what it is that the people really desire. We shall find that 

there is nothing so dear to them as peace, and quietness, and 

ease. You have handed over the city to ine full of anxiety, 

depressed with fear, disturbed by these projected laws and 

seditious assemblies." It must be remembered that he had 

only on that very day begun his Consulship. " The wicked 

you have filled with hope, the good with fear. You have 

robbed the Forum of loyalty and the Eepublic of dignity. 

But now when in the midst of these troubles of mind and 

body, when in this great darkness the voice and the authority 

of the Consul has been heard by the people, when he shall 

have made it plain that there is no cause for fear, that no 

strange army shall enrol itself, no bands collect themselves ; 

that there shall be no new colonies, 110 sale of the revenue, 

no altered empire, no royal ' decemvirs,' no second Rome, 

no other centre of rule but this, that while I am Consul 

there shall be perfect peace, perfect ease, do you suppose 

that I shall dread the superior popularity of your new 

agrarian law ? Shall I, do you think, be afraid to hold my 

own against you in an assembly of the citizens when I shall 

have exposed the iniquity of your designs, the fraud of this 

law, the plots which your Tribunes of the people, popular 

as they think themselves, have contrived against the Roman 

people ? Shall I fear, I who have determined to be Consul 

after that fashion in which alone a man may do so in dignity 

and freedom, resolving to ask nothing for myself which 

any Tribune could object to have given to me ? " l 

1 De Lege Agraria, i. 7 and 8. 



CICERO AS CONSUL. 241 

This was to the Senate, but he is bolder still, when he 
addresses the people. He begins by reminding them 
that it has always been the custom of the great officers 
of state, who have enjoyed the right of having in their 
houses the busts and images of their ancestors, in their 
first speech to the people, to join with thanks for the 
favours done to themselves some records of the noble 
deeds done by their forefathers. 1 He however could do 
nothing of the kind. He had no such right. None in 
his family had achieved such dignity. To speak of himself 
might seem too proud ; but to be silent would be ungrateful. 
Therefore would he restrain himself, but would still say 
something ; so that he might acknowledge what he had 
received. Then he would leave it for them to judge 
whether he had deserved what they had done for him. 

"It is long ago, almost beyond the memory of us now 
here, since you last made a new man Consul. 2 That 
high office the nobles had reserved for themselves and 
defended it as it were with ramparts. You have secured it 
for me, so that in future it shall be open to any who may 
be worthy of it. Nor have you only made me Consul, 
much as that is; but you have done so in such a fashion 
that but few among the old nobles have been so treated, 

1 The "jus imaginis" belonged to those among whose ancestors were 
counted an ^Edile, a Pnetor, or a Consul. The descendants of such officers 
were entitled to have these images, whether in bronze, or marble, or wax, 
carried at the funerals of their friends. 

2 Forty years since Marius, who was also "novus homo," and also singu- 
larly enough from Arpinum, had been made Consul ; but not with the 
glorious circumstances as now detailed by Cicero. 

VOL. I. R 



242 LIFE OF CICERO. 

and no new man. 'Novus ante me nemo.' I have, if 
you will think of it, been the only new man who has stood 
for the Consulship, in the first year in which it was legal, 
and who has got it." Then he goes on to remind them 
in words which I have quoted before that they had elected 
him by their unanimous voices. All this, he says, had 
been very grateful to him, but he had quite understood 
that it had been done that he might labour on their behalf. 
That such labour was severe, he declares. The Consulship 
itself must be defended. His period of Consulship to any 
Consul must be a year of grave responsibility, but more 
so to him than to any other. To him, should he be in doubt, 
the great nobles would give no kind advice. To him, should 
he be overtasked, they would give no assistance. But the 
first thing he would look for should be their good opinion. 
To declare now, before the people, that he would exercise 
his office for the good of the people was his natural duty. 
But in that place in which it was difficult to speak after 
such a fashion, in the Senate itself, on the very first day 
of his Consulship, he had declared the same thing, " popu- 
larem me futurum esse consulem." 1 

The course he had to pursue was noble, but very difficult. 
He desired certainly to be recognised as a friend of the 
people, but he desired so to befriend them that he might 
support also at the same time the power of the aristocracy. 
He still believed, as we cannot believe now, that there was 
a residuum of good in the Senate sufficient to blossom 

1 De Lege Agraria, ii. 1, 2, and 3. 



CICERO AS CONSUL. 243 

forth into new powers of honest government. When 
speaking to the oligarchs in the Senate of Eullus and his 
land law it was easy enough to carry them with him. 
That a Consul should oppose a Tribune who was coming 
forward with a " Lex agraria " in his hands, as the latest 
disciple of the Gracchi, was not out of the common order 
of things. Another Consul would either have looked for 
popularity and increased power of plundering, as Antony 
might have done, or have stuck to his order, as he would 

O ' ' 

have called it, as might have been the case with the Cottas, 
Lepiduses, and Pisos of preceding years. But Cicero 
determined to oppose the demagogue Tribune by proving 
himself to the people to be more of a demagogue than 
he. He succeeded, and Eullus with his agrarian law was 
sent back into darkness. I regard the second speech against 
Rullus as the "ne plus ultra," the very beau-ideal of a 
political harangue to the people on the side of order and 
good government. 

I cannot finish this chapter in which I have attempted 
to describe the lesser operations of Cicero's Consulship 
without again alluding to the picture drawn by Virgil of 
a great man quelling the storms of a seditious rising by 
the gravity of his presence and the weight of his words. 1 
The poet surely had in his memory some occasion in which 
had taken place this great triumph of character and intellect 
combined. When the knights during Cicero's Consulship 
assayed to take their privileged places in the public theatre 

1 See page 10. 

R 2 



244 LIFE OF CICERO. 

in accordance with a law passed by Eoscius Otho a few 
years earlier, (B.C. 68,) the founder of the obnoxious law 
himself entered the building. The people enraged against 
a man who had interfered with them and their pleasures, 
and who had brought them as it were under new restraints 
from the aristocracy, arose in a body and began to break 
everything that came to hand. "Turn pietate gravem!" 
The Consul was sent for. He called on the people to 
follow him out of the theatre to the temple of Bellona, 
and there addressed to them that wonderful oration, by 
which they were sent away not only pacified but in good 
humour with Otho himself. "Iste regit dictis animos et 
pectora mulcet." I have spoken of Pliny's eulogy as to 
the great Consul's doings of the year. The passage is short 
and I will translate it. 1 "But Marcus Tullius, how shall 
I reconcile it to myself to be silent as to you, or by what 
special glory shall I best declare your excellence? How 
better than by referring to the grand testimony given to 
you by the whole nation, and to the achievements of your 
Consulship as a specimen of your entire life ? At your voice 
the tribes gave up their agrarian law, which was as the very 
bread in their mouths. At your persuasion they pardoned 
Otho his law, and bore with good humour the difference of 
the seats assigned to them. At your prayer the children 
of the proscribed forbore from demanding their rights of 
citizenship. Catiline was put to flight by your skill and 
eloquence. It was you who silenced 2 M. Antony. Hail, 

1 Pliny the elder, Hist. Nat. lib. vii. ca. xxxi. 

2 The word is " proscripsisti," " you proscribed him." For the proper under- 



CICERO AS CONSUL. 245 

thou who wert first addressed as the father of your country, 
the first who in the garb of peace hast deserved a triumph 
and won the laurel wreath of eloquence." This was grand 
praise to be spoken of a man more than a hundred years 
after his death by one who had no peculiar sympathies with 
him other than those created by literary affinity. 

None of Cicero's letters have come to us from the year 
of his Consulship. 

standing of this, the bearing of Cicero towards Antony during the whole 
period of the Philippics must be considered. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CATILINE. 

To wash the blackamoor white has been the favourite 
task of some modern historians. To find a paradox in 
character is a relief to the investigating mind which does 
not care to walk always in the well-tried paths or to follow 
the grooves made plain and uninteresting by earlier writers. 
Tiberius and even Nero have been praised. The memories 
of our early years have been shocked by instructions to regard 
Richard III. and Henry VIII. as great and scrupulous kings. 
The devil may have been painted blacker than he should be, 
and the minds of just men, who will not accept the verdict 
of the majority, have been much exercised to put the matter 
right. We are now told that Catiline was a popular hero ; 
that, though he might have wished to murder Cicero, he 
was, in accordance with the practice of his days, not much 
to be blamed for that ; and that he was simply the follower 
of the Gracchi and the forerunner of Csesar in his desire to 
oppose the oligarchy of Rome. 1 In this there is much that 
is true. Murder was common. He who had seen the 

1 Catiline, by Mr. Beesly. " Fortnightly Keview," 1865. 



CATILINE. 247 

Sullan proscriptions, as both Catiline and Cicero had done, 
might well have learned to feel less scrupulous as to blood 
than we do in these days. Even Cicero, who of all the 
liomans was the most humane, even he, no doubt, 
would have been well contented that Catiline should have 
been destroyed by the people. 1 Even he was the cause, 
as we shall see just now, of the execution of the leaders 
of the conspirators whom Catiline left behind him in the 
city, an execution of which the legality is at any rate 
very doubtful. But in judging even of bloodshed we have 
to regard the circumstances of the time in the verdicts we 
give. Our consciousness of altered manners and of the 
growth of gentleness force this upon us. We cannot execrate 
the conspirators who murdered Caesar as we would do those 
who might now plot the death of a tyrant. Nor can we 
deal as heavily with the murderers of Csesar as we would 
have done then with Catilinarian conspirators in Rome, 
had Catiline's conspiracy succeeded. And so, too, in ac- 
knowledging that Catiline was the outcome of the Gracchi, 
and to some extent the preparation for Csesar, we must 
again compare him with them, his motives and designs with 
theirs, before we can allow ourselves to ' sympathise with 
him because there was much in them worthy of praise 
and honour. 

That the Gracchi were seditious no historian has I think 



1 Pro Murena, xxv. " Quern omnino vivum illinc exire non oportuerat." 
I think we must conclude from this that Cicero had almost expected that his 
attack upon the conspirators in his first Catiline oration would have the 
effect of causing him to be killed. 



248 LIFE OF CICERO. 

denied. They were willing to use the usages and laws of 
the Eepublic where those usages and laws assisted them, 
but as willing to act illegally when the usages and laws 
ran counter to them. In the reforms or changes which they 
attempted, they were undoubtedly rebels ; but no reader 
comes across the tale of the death, first of one and then 
of the other, without a regret. It has to be owned that they 
were murdered in tumults which they themselves had occa- 
sioned. But they were honest, and patriotic. History has 
declared of them that their efforts were made with the real 
purport of relieving their fellow-countrymen from what they 
believed to be the tyranny of oligarchs. The Eepublic even 
in their time had become too rotten to be saved; but the 
world has not the less given them the credit for a desire 
to do good ; and the names of the two brothers, rebels as 
they were, have come down to us with a sweet savour 
about them. Caesar on the other hand was no doubt of 
the same political party. He too was opposed to the 
oligarchs, but it never occurred to him that he could save 
the Republic by any struggles after freedom. His mind 
was not given to patriotism of that sort, not to memories, 
not to associations. Even laws were nothing to him but 
as they might be useful. To his thinking, probably even 
in his early days, the state of Rome required a master. 
Its wealth, its pleasures, its soldiers, its power were there 
for any one to take who could take them, for any one to 
hold who could hold them. Mr. Beesly, the last defender 
of Catiline, has stated that very little was known in Rome 
of Csesar till the time of Catiline's conspiracy, and in that 



CATILINE. 249 

I agree with him. He possessed high family rank, and 
had been Qusestor and JMile, but it was only from this 
year out that his name was much in men's mouths and 
that he was learning to look into things. It may be that 
he had previously been in league with Catiline, that he 
was in league with him till the time came for the great 
attempt. The evidence as far as it goes seems to show 
that it was so. Borne had been the prey of many con- 
spiracies. The dominion of Marius and the dominion of 
Sulla had been effected by conspiracies. No doubt the 
opinion was strong with many that both Csesar, and Crassus 
the rich man, were concerned with Catiline. But Caesar 
was very far-seeing and, if such connection existed, knew 
how to withdraw from it when the time was not found to 
be opportune. But from first to last he always was opposed 
to the oligarchy. The various steps, from the Gracchi 
to him, were as those which had to be made from the 
Girondists to Napoleon. Catiline no doubt was one of 
the steps, as were Danton and Eobespierre steps. The 
continuation of steps in each case was at first occasioned 
by the bad government and greed of a few men in power. 
But as Eobespierre was vile and low whereas Vergniaud 
was honest and Napoleon great ; so was it with Catiline 
between the Gracchi and Csesar. There is to my thinking 
no excuse for Catiline in the fact that he was a natural step, 
not even though he were a necessary step between the 
Gracchi and Csesar. 

I regard as futile the attempts which are made to re-write 
history on the base of moral convictions and philosophical 



250 LIFE OF CICERO. 

conclusion. History very often has been, and no doubt 
often again will be, re-written, with good effect and in the 
service of truth, on the finding of new facts. Records have 
been brought to light which have hitherto been buried, and 
testimonies are compared with testimonies which have not 
before been seen together. But to imagine that a man may 
have been good who has lain under the ban of all the his- 
torians, all the poets, and all the tellers of anecdotes, and 
then to declare such goodness simply in accordance with the 
dictates of a generous heart or a contradictory spirit, is to 
disturb rather than to assist history. Of Catiline we at least 
know that he headed a sedition in Eome in the year of 
Cicero's consulship, that he left the city suddenly, that he 
was killed in the neighbourhood of Pistoia fighting against 
the generals of the Eepublic, and that he left certain accom- 
plices in Eome who were put to death by an edict of the 
Senate. So much I think is certain to the most truculent 
doubter. From his contemporaries, Sallust and Cicero, we 
have a very strongly expressed opinion of his character. 
They have left to us denunciations of the man which have 
made him odious to all after ages, so that modern poets have 
made him a stock character and have dramatised him as a 
fiend. Voltaire has described him as calling upon his fellow- 
conspirators to murder Cicero and Cato, and to burn the 
city. Ben Jonson makes Catiline kill a slave and mix his 
blood, to be drained by his friends. "There cannot be a 
fitter drink to make this sanction in." The friends of 
Catiline will say that this shows no evidence against the 
man. None certainly; but it is a continued expression 



CATILINE. 251 

of the feeling that has prevailed since Catiline's tima In 
his own age Cicero and Sallust, who were opposed in all 
their political views, combined to speak ill of him. In 
the next Virgil makes him as suffering his punishment in 
hell. 1 In the next Velleius Paterculus speaks of him as 
the conspirator whom Cicero had banished. 2 Juvenal makes 
various allusions to him, but all in the same spirit. Juvenal 
cared nothing for history, but used the names of well known 
persons as illustrations of the idea which he was presenting. 3 
Valerius Maximus who wrote commendable little essays 
about all the virtues and all the vices which he illustrated 
with the names of all the vicious and all the virtuous people 
he knew, is very severe on Catiline. 4 Florus who wrote two 
centuries and a half after the conspiracy gives us of Catiline 
the same personal story as that told both by Sallust and 
Cicero, "Debauchery in the first place, and then the 
poverty which that had produced, and then the oppor- 
tunity of the time, because the Eoman armies were in dis- 
tant lands, induced Catiline to conspire for the destruction 

1 Juv\(\, viii. 668 : 

" Te, Catiliua, miaaci 
Pendentem scopulo." 

* Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii. xxxiv. 

3 Juvenal, Sat. ii. 27. "Catilina Cethegum !" Could such a one as 
Catiline answer such a one as Cethegus ? Sat. viii. 232. " Arma tamen vos 
Nocturna et flammas domibus templisque parastis." Catiline in spite of his 
noble blood had endeavoured to burn the city. Sat. xiv. 41, "Catilinara 
quocunque in populo videas." It is hard to find a good man, but it is easy 
enough to put your hand anywhere on a Catiline. 

4 Val. Mttxiuuis, lib. v. viii. 5 ; lib. ix. 1, 9 ; lib ix. xi. 3. 



252 LIFE OF CICERO. 

of his country." l Mommsen who was certainly biased by 
no feeling in favour of Cicero declares that Catiline in 
particular was "one of the most nefarious men in that 
nefarious age. His villanies belong to the criminal records 
not to history.". 2 All this is no evidence. Cicero and Sallust 
may possibly have combined to lie about Catiline. Other 
Eoman writers may have followed them, and modern poets 
and modern historians may have followed the Eoman writers. 
It is possible that the world may have been wrong as to a 
period of Eoman history with which it has thought itself to 
be well acquainted. But the world now has nothing to go 
by but the facts as they have come down to it. The writers 
of the ages since have combined to speak of Cicero with 
respect and admiration. They have combined also to speak 
of Catiline with abhorrence. They have agreed also to treat 
those other rebels the Gracchi after such a fashion that in 
spite of the,ir sedition a sweet savour, as I have said, attaches 
itself to their names. For myself I am contented to take 
the opinion of the world and feel assured that I shall do 
no injustice in speaking of Catiline as all who have written 
about him hitherto, have spoken of him. I cannot consent 
to the building up of a noble patriot out of such materials 
as we have concerning him. 3 

1 Floras, lib. iv. 

2 Mommsen's History of Rome, Book v. chap. v. 

3 1 feel myself constrained here to allude to the treatment given to Catiline 
by Dfan Merivale in his little work on the two Eoman triumvirates. The 
L>ean's sympathies are very near akin to those of Mr. Beesly, but he values 
too highly his own hist<tnY;i] judgment to allow it to run on all fours with Mr. 
Becsly's. sympathies. "The real designs," he says, "of the infamous Catiline 



CATILINE. 253 

Two strong points have been made for Catiline in Mr. 
Beesly's defence. His ancestors had been Consuls when 
the forefathers of patricians of a later date " were clapping 
their chopped hands and throwing up their sweat} 7 night- 
caps." That scorn against the people should be expressed 
by the aristocrat Casca was well supposed by Shakespeare ; 
but how did a liberal of the present day bring himself to 
do honour to his hero by such allusions ? In truth, however, 
the glory of ancient blood and the disgrace attaching to the 
signs of labour are ideas seldom relinquished even by demo- 
cratic minds. A Howard is nowhere lovelier than in 
America, or a sweaty nightcap less relished. We are then 
reminded how Catiline died fighting, with the wounds all 
in front, and are told that the " world has generally a 
generous word for the memory of a brave man dying for 
his cause, be that cause what it will. But for Catiline 
none ! " I think there is a mistake in the sentiment ex- 
pressed here. To die readily when death must come is 

and his associates must indeed always remain shrouded in mystery 

Nevertheless it is impossible to deny, and on the whole it would be unreason- 
able to doubt, that such a conspiracy there really was, and that the very 
existence of the commonwealth was for a moment seriously imperilled." It 
would certainly be unreasonable to doubt it. But the Dean, though he 
calls Catiline infamous and acknowledges the conspiracy, nevertheless 
gives us ample proof of his sympathy with the conspirators, or rather of 
his strong feeling against Cicero. Speaking of Catiline at a certain moment, 
he says that he "was not yet hunted down." He speaks of the "upstart 
Cicero," and plainly shows us that his heart is with the side which had been 
Csesar's. Whether conspiracy or no conspiracy, whether with or without 
wholesale murder and rapine, a single master with a strong hand was the ono 
remedy needed for Rome ! The reader must understand that Cicero's one 
object in public life was to resist that lesson. 



254 LIFE OF CICERO, . 

but a little thing, and is done daily by the poorest of 
mankind. The Eomans could generally do it, and so can 
the Chinese. A Zulu is quite equal to it, and people lower 
in civilisation than Chinese or Zulus. To encounter death 
or the danger of death, for the sake of duty, when the 
choice is there, but duty and death are preferred to igno- 
minious security, or better still to security which shall 
bring with it self-abasement, that is grand. When I hear 
that a man "Bushed into the field and foremost fighting 
fell," if there have been no adequate occasion, I think 
him a fool. If it be that he has chosen to hurry on the 
necessary event, as was Catiline's case, I recognise him as 
having been endowed with certain physical attributes which 
are neither glorious nor disgraceful. That Catiline was 
constitutionally a brave man no one has denied. Eush the 
murderer was one of the bravest men of whom I remember 
to have heard. What credit is due to Eush is due to 
Catiline. 

What we believe to be the story of Catiline's life is this. 
In Sulla's time he was engaged, as behoved a great nobleman 
of ancient blood, in carrying out the Dictator's proscriptions 
and in running through whatever means he had. There are 
fearful stories told of him as to murdering his own son and 
other relatives, as to which Mr. Beesly is no doubt right 
in saying that such tales were too lightly told in Borne to 
deserve implicit confidence. To serve a purpose any one 
would say anything of any enemy. Very marvellous quali- 
ties are attributed to him, as to having been at the same 
time steeped in luxury and yet able and willing to bear all 



CATILINE. 255 

bodily hardships. He probably had been engaged in 
murders, as how should a man not have been so who had 
served under Sulla during the dictatorship ? He had pro- 
bably allured some young aristocrats into debauchery, when 
all young aristocrats were so allured. He had probably 
undergone some extremity of cold and hunger. In reading 
of these things the reader will know by instinct how much 
he may believe, and how much he should receive as mythic. 
That he was a fast young nobleman, brought up to know 
no scruples, to disregard blood, and to look upon his country 
as a milch-cow from which a young nobleman might be fed 
with never ending streams of rich cream in the shape of 
money to be borrowed, wealth to be snatched, and, above all, 
foreigners to be plundered, we may take, I think, as proved. 
In spite of his vices, or by aid of them, he rose in the 
service of his country. That such a one should become 
a Praetor and a Governor was natural. He went to Africa 
with proconsular authority, and of course fleeced the 
Africans. It was as natural as that a flock of sheep should 
lose their wool at shearing time. He came back intent, as 
was natural also, on being a Consul, and of carrying on the 
game of promotion and of plunder. But there came a spoke 
in his wheel, the not unusual spoke, of an accusation from 
the province. While under accusation for provincial robbery 
he could not come forward as a candidate, and thus he was 
stopped in his career. 

It is not possible now to unravel all the personal feuds of 
the time, the ins and outs of family quarrels. Clodius, 
the Clodius who was afterwards Cicero's notorious enemy 



256 LIFE OF CICERO. 

and the victim of Milo's fury, became the accuser of Catiline 
on behalf of the Africans. Though Clodius was much the 
younger, they were men of the same class. It may be 
possible that Clodius was appointed to the work, as it had 
been intended that Csecilius should be appointed at the 
prosecution of Yerres, in order to assure, not the conviction, 
but the acquittal of the guilty man. The historians and 
biographers say that Clodius was at last bought by a bribe, 
and that he betrayed the Africans after that fashion. It 
may be that such bribery was arranged from the first. Our 
interest in that trial lies in the fact that Cicero no doubt 
intended, from political motives, to defend Catiline. It has 
been said that he did do so. As far as we know, he 
abandoned the intention. "We have no trace of his speech 
and no allusion in history to an occurrence which would 
certainly have been mentioned. 1 But there was no reason 
why he should not have done so. He defended Fonteius, 
and I am quite willing to own that he knew Fonteius to 
have been a robber. When I look at the practice of our 
own times, I find that thieves and rebels are defended by 
honourable advocates, who do not scruple to take their briefs 
in opposition to their own opinions. It suited Cicero to do 
the same. If I were detected in a plot for blowing up a 
Cabinet Council I do not doubt but that I should get the 
late Attornev-General to defend me. 2 



1 Asconius "in toga Candida," reports that Fenestella, a writer of the 
time of Augustus, had declared that Cicero had defended Catiline ; but 
Asconius gives his reasons for disbelieving the story. 
2 Cicero, however, declares that he has made a difference between traitors 



CATILINE. 257 

But Catiline, though he was acquitted, was baulked in his 
candidature for the Consulship of the next year, B.C. 65. P. 
Sulla and Autronius were elected, 1 that Sulla to whose 
subsequent defence I have just referred in this note, but 
were ejected on the score of bribery, and two others, 
Torquatus and Cotta, were elected in their place. In this 
way three men standing on high before their countrymen, 
one having been debarred from standing for the Consulship, 
and the other two having been robbed of their prize even 
when it was within their grasp, not unnaturally became 
traitors at heart. Almost as naturally they came together 
and conspired. Why should they have been selected as 
victims, having only done that which every aristocrat did as 
a matter of course in following out his recognised profession 
in living upon the subject nations ? Their conduct had 

to their country and other criminals. Pro P. Sulla, ca. iii. " Verum 
etiam qusedam contagio sceleris, si defendas eum, quern obstrictum esse patriae 
parricidio suspicere. " Further on in the same oration, ca. vi., he explains 
that he had refused to defend Autronius because he had known Autronius to 
be a conspirator against his country. I cannot admit the tiuth of the argu- 
ment in which Mr. Forsyth defends the practice of the English bar in this 
respect, and in doing so presses hard upon Cicero. " At Rome," he says, "it 
was different. The advocate there was conceived to have a much wider dis- 
cretion than we allow." Neither in Rome nor in England has the advocate 
been held to be disgraced by undertaking the defence of bad men who have 
been notoriously guilty. What an English barrister may do, there was no 
reason that a Roman advocate should not do in regard to simple criminality. 
Cicero himself has explained in the passage I have quoted how the Roman 
practice did differ from ours in regard to treason. He has stated also that he 
knew nothing of the first conspiracy when he offered to defend Catiline on 
the score of provincial peculations. No writer has been heavy on Hortensius 
for defending Verres ; but only because he took bribes from Verres. 
1 Publius Cornelius Sulla, and Publius Autronius Poetus. 

VOL. I. S 



258 LIFE OF CICERO. 

probably been the same as that of others, or if more 
glaring, only so much so as is always the case with vices as 
they become more common. However, the three men fell, 
and became the centre of a plot which is known as the first 
Catiline conspiracy. 

The reader must bear in mind that I am now telling the 
story of Catiline, and going back to a period of two years 
before Cicero's consulship, which was B.C. 63. How during 
that year, Cicero successfully defended Murena when Cato 
endeavoured to rob him of his coming Consulship, has been 
already told. It may be that Murena's hands were no 
cleaner than those of Sulla and Autronius, and that they 
lacked only the consular authority and forensic eloquence 
of the advocate who defended Murena. At this time, when 
the two appointed Consuls were rejected, Cicero had hardly 
as yet taken any part in public politics. He had been 
Qugestor, ^dile, and Praetor, filling those administrative 
offices to the best of his ability. He had, he says, hardly 
heard of the first conspiracy. 1 That what he says is true, 
is I think proved by the absence of all allusion to it in his 
early letters or in the speeches or fragments of speeches 
that are extant. But that there was such a conspiracy we 
cannot doubt, nor that the three men named, Catiline, Sulla, 
and Autronius, were leaders in it. What would interest us, 



1 Pro P. Sulla, iv. He declares that he had known nothing of the first 
conspiracy, and gives the reason, " Quod nondum penitus in republica versa- 
bar, quod nondum ad propositum mini finem honoris perveneram, quod mea 
me ambitio et forensis labor ab omni ilia cogitatione abstrahebat." 



CATILINE. 259 

if only we could have the truth, is whether Caesar and 
Crassus were joined in it. 

It is necessary again to consider the condition of the 
Republic. To us a conspiracy to subvert the government 
under which the conspirer lives, seems either a very terrible 
remedy for great evils, or an attempt to do evil which all 
good men should oppose. We have the happy conspiracy 
in which Washington became the military leader, and the 
French Eevolution which, bloody as it was, succeeded in 
rescuing Frenchmen from the condition of serfdom. At 
home we have our own conspiracy against the Stuart 
royalty, which had also noble results. The Gracchi had 
attempted to effect something of the same kind at Eome. 
But the moral condition of the people had become so low 
that no real love of liberty remained. Conspiracy ! oh yes. 
As long as there was anything to get, of course he who 
had not got it would conspire against him who had. There 
had been conspiracies for and against Marius, for and against 
Cinna, for and against Sulla. There was a grasping for 
plunder, a thirst for power which meant luxury, a greed for 
blood which grew from the hatred which such rivalry pro- 
duced ; these were the motive causes for conspiracies ; not 
whether Eomans should be free, but whether a Sulla or a 
Gotta should be allowed to run riot in a province. 

Csesar at this time had not done much in the Eoman 
world, except fall greatly into debt. Knowing, as we do 
know now, his immense intellectual capacity, we cannot 
doubt, but at the age he had now reached, 35, B.C. 65, 
he had considered deeply his prospects in life. There is 

s 2 



260 LIFE OF CICERO. 

no reason for supposing that lie had conceived the idea of 
being a great soldier. That came. to him, by pure accident, 
some years afterwards. To be Quaestor, Prsetor, and Consul, 
and catch what was going, seems to have been the cause 
to him of having encountered extraordinary debt. That he 
would have been a Verres, or a Fonteius, or a Catiline, we 
certainly are not entitled to think. Over whatever people 
he might have come to reign, and in whatever way he might 
have procured his kingdom, he would have reigned with a 
far-seeing eye, fixed upon future results. At this period he 
was looking out for a way to advance himself. There were 
three men, all just six years his senior, who had risen, or 
were rising, into great repute. They were Pompey, Cicero, 
and Catiline. There were two who were noted for having 
clean hands in the midst of all the dirt around ; and they 
were undoubtedly the first Eomans of the day. Catiline 
was determined that he too would be among the first Eomans 
of the day; but his hands had never been clean. Which 
was the better way for such a one as Caesar to go ? 

To have had Pompey under his feet, or Cicero, must have 
then seemed to Csesar to be impracticable, though the time 
came when he did, in different ways, have his feet on both. 
With Catiline the chance of success might be better. 
Crassus he had already compassed. Crassus was like M. 
Poirier in the play, a man who, having become rich, then 
allowed himself the luxury of an ambition. If Csesar 
joined the plot we can well understand that Crassus should 
have gone with him. We have all but sufficient authority 
for saying that it was so, but authority insufficient for 



CATILINE. 261 

declaring it. That Sallust in his short account of the first 
conspiracy should not have implicated Csesar, was a matter 
of course, 1 as he wrote altogether in Csesar's interest. That 
Cicero should not have mentioned it is also quite intelligible. 
He did not wish to pull down upon his ears the whole house 
of the aristocracy. Throughout his career it was his object 
to maintain the tenor of the law, with what smallest breach 
of it might be possible. But he was wise enough to know 
that when the laws were being broken on every side he 
could not catch in his nets all those who broke them. He 
had to pass over much ; to make the best of the state of 
things as he found them. It is not to be supposed that 
a conspirator against the Eepublic would be horrible to him, 
as would be to us a traitor against the Crown. There were 
too many of them for horror. If Csesar and Crassus could 
be got to keep themselves quiet, he would be willing enough 
not to have to add them to his list of enemies. Livy is 
presumed to have told us that this conspiracy intended to 
restore the ejected Consuls, and to kill the Consuls who had 
been established in their place. But the book in which this 
was written is lost, and we have only the Epitome, or heading 
of the book, of which we know that it was not written by 
Livy. 2 Suetonius, who got his story not improbably from 
Livy, tells us that Csesar was suspected of having joined 
this conspiracy with Crassus, 3 and he goes on to say that 
Cicero, writing subsequently to one Axius, declared that 



Sallust, Catilinaria xviii. * Livy Epitome, lib. ci. 

3 Suetonius, J. Csar, ix. 



262 LIFE OF CICERO. 

"'Caesar had attempted in his Consulship to accomplish the 
dominion, which he had intended to grasp in his ^Edileship," 
the year in question. There is, however, no such letter 
extant Asconius, who as I have said before wrote in the 
time of Tiberius, declares that Cicero in his lost oration, 
"In toga Candida," accused Crassus of having been the 
author of the conspiracy. Such is the information we have, 
and if we elect to believe that Ceesar was then joined with 
Catiline, we must be guided by our ideas of probability 
rather than by evidence. 1 As I have said before, con- 
spiracies had been very rife. To Caesar it was no doubt 
becoming manifest that the Republic with its oligarchs must 
fall. Subsequently it did fall, and he was, I will not say 
the conspirator, nor will I judge the question by saying that 
he was the traitor, but the man of power who having the 
legions of the Republic in his hands, used them against the 
Republic. I can well understand that he should have joined 
such a conspiracy as this first of Catiline, and then have 
backed out of it when he found he could not trust those 
who were joined with him. 

This conspiracy failed. One man omitted to give a signal 
at one time, and another at another. The Senate was to 
have been slaughtered, the two Consuls, Cotta and Torquatus 
murdered, and the two ex-Consuls, Sulla and Autronius, 
replaced. Though all the details seem to have been known 



1 Mommsen, Book v. ca. v., says of Caesar and Crassus as to this period, 
"That this notorious action corresponds with striking exactness to the secret 
action which this report ascribes to them." By which he means to imply 
that they probably were concerned in the plot. 



CATILINE. 263 

to the Consuls Catiline was allowed to go free, nor were any 
steps taken for the punishment of the conspirators. 

The second conspiracy was attempted in the Consulship of 
B c 63 ^i cero > B.C. 63, two years after the first. Catiline 
setat 44. jj ad struggled for the Consulship and had failed. 
Again there would be no province, no plunder, no power. 
This interference, as it must have seemed to him, with his 
peculiar privileges, had all come from Cicero. Cicero was 
the busy-body who was attempting to stop the order of 
things which had, to his thinking, been specially ordained 
by all the gods for the sustenance of one so well born and 
at the same time so poor as himself. There was a vulgar 
meddling about it, all coming from the violent virtue of a 
Consul whose father had been a nobody at Arpinum, 
which was well calculated to drive Catiline into madness. 
So he went to work and got together in Rome a body of 
men as discontented and almost as nobly born as himself, 
and in the country, north of Rome, an army of rebels, and 
began his operations with very little secrecy. In all the 
story the most remarkable feature is the openness with 
which many of the details of the conspiracy were carried 
on. The existence of the rebel army was known; it was 
known that Catiline was the leader ; the causes of his dis- 
affection were known; his comrades in guilt were known. 
When any special act was intended, such as might be the 
murder of the Consul or the firing of the city, secret plots 
were concocted in abundance. But the grand fact of a wide- 
spread conspiracy could go naked in Rome, and not even a 
Cicero dare to meddle with it. 



264 LIFE OF CICERO. 

' As to this second conspiracy, the conspiracy with which 
Sallust and Cicero have made us so well acquainted, there is 
no sufficient ground for asserting that Caesar was concerned 
in it. 1 That he was greatly concerned in the treatment of the 
conspirators there is no doubt. He had probably learned to 
appreciate the rage, the madness, the impotence of Catiline 
at their proper worth. He too, I think, must have looked 
upon Cicero as a meddling, over- virtuous, busy-body; as 
did even Pompey when he returned from the East. What 
practical use could there be in such a man at such a time, 
in one who really believed in honesty, who thought of liberty 
and the Eepublic, and imagined that he could set the world 
right by talking ? Such must have been the feeling of 
Csesar, who had both experience and foresight to tell him 
that Rome wanted and must have a master. He probably 
had patriotism enough to feel that he, if he could acquire the 
mastership, would do something beyond robbery, would not 
satisfy himself with cutting the throats of all his enemies, 
and feeding his supporters with the property of his opponents. 
But Cicero was impracticable ; unless indeed he could be 
so nattered as to be made useful. It was thus, I think, that 
Caesar regarded Cicero, and thus that he induced Pompey 
to regard him. But now, in the year of his Consulship, 
Cicero had really talked himself into power, and for this year 
his virtue must be allowed to have its full way. 

1 Sallust tells us, Catilinaria xlix., that Cicero was instigated by special 
enemies of Caesar to include Caesar in the accusation, but refused to mix himself 
up in so great a crime. Crassus also was accused, but probably wrongfully. 
Sallust declares that an attempt was made to murder Caesar as he left the 
Senate. There was probably some quarrel and hustling ; but no more. 



CATILINE. 265 

He did so much in this year, was so really efficacious in 
restraining for a time the greed and violence of the aristo- 
cracy, that it is not surprising that he was taught to believe 
in himself. There were, too, enough of others anxious for the 
Republic, to bolster him up in his own belief. There was that 
Cornelius in whose defence Cicero made the two great speeches 
which have been unfortunately lost. And there was Cato, 
and up to this time there was Pompey, as Cicero thought- 
Cicero, till he found himself candidate for the Consulship, 
had contented himself with undertaking separate cases in 
which, no doubt, politics were concerned, but which were 
not exclusively political. He had advocated the employment 
of Pompey in the East; and had defended Cornelius. He 
was well acquainted with the history of the Eepublic. But 
he had probably never asked himself the question whether 
it was in mortal peril, and if so, whether it might possibly 
be saved. In his Consulship he did do so, and seeing less 
of the Eepublic than we can see now, told himself that it 
was possible. 

The stories told to us of Catiline's conspiracy by Sallust 
and by Cicero are so little conflicting that we can trust them 
both. Trusting them both we are justified in believing that 
we know the truth. We are here concerned only with the 
part which Cicero took. Nothing, I think, which Cicero says 
is contradicted by Sallust, though of much that Cicero cer- 
tainly did Sallust is silent. Sallust damns him, but only 
by faint praise. We may therefore take the account of the 
plot as given by Cicero himself as verified. Indeed I am 
not aware that any of Cicero's facts have been questioned. 



266 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Sallust declares that Catiline's attempt was popular in 
Eome generally. 1 This, I think, must be taken as showing 
simply that revolution and conspiracy were in themselves 
popular. That, as a condition of things around him such as 
existed in Eome, a plotter of state plots should be able to 
collect a body of followers, was a thing of course. That there 
were many citizens who would not work and who expected 
to live in luxury on public or private plunder is certain. 
When the conspiracy was first announced in the Senate 
Catiline had an army collected. But we have no proof that 
the hearts of the inhabitants of Eome generally were with 
the conspirators. On the other hand we have proof, in the 
unparalleled devotion shown by the citizens to Cicero after 
the conspiracy was quelled, that their hearts were with 
him. The populace, fond of change, liked a disturbance; 
but there is nothing to show that Catiline was ever beloved 
as had been the Gracchi and other tribunes of the people 
who came after them. 

Catiline, in the autumn of the year, B.C. 63, had arranged 
the outside circumstances of his conspiracy, knowing that 
he would, for the third time, be unsuccessful in his canvas 
for the consulship. That Cicero with other senators should 
be murdered seems to have been their first object, and that 
then the Consulship should be seized by force. On the 21st 
October Cicero made his first report to the Senate as to the 

1 Sallust. Catilinaria, xxxvii. "Omnino cuncta plebes, novarum rerum 
studio, Catilinse incepta probabat." By the words "novarum rerum studio," 
by a love of revolution, we can understand the kind of popularity which 
Sallnst intended to express. 



CATILINE. 267 

conspiracy, and called upon Catiline for his answer. It 
was then that Catiline made his famous reply ; " That the 
Eepublic had two bodies, of which one was weak and had 
a bad head," meaning the aristocracy, with Cicero as its 
chief, " and the other strong, but without any head ; " mean- 
ing the people ; " but that as for himself, so well had the 
people deserved of him that as long as he lived a head should 
be forthcoming." x Then, at that sitting, the Senate decreed, 
in the usual formula, " That the Consuls were to take care 
that the Eepublic did not suffer. 2 On the 22nd October 
the new consuls Silaims and Murena were elected. On the 
23rd Catiline was regularly accused of conspiracy by Paulus 
Lepidus, a young nobleman, in conformity with a law which 
had been enacted fifty-five years earlier, " de vi publica," 
as to violence applied to the State. Two days afterwards it 
was officially reported that Manlius, or Mallius, as he seems 
to have been generally called, Catiline's lieutenant, had 
openly taken up arms in Etruria. The 27th had been fixed 
by the conspirators for the murder of Cicero and the other 
senators. That all this was to be and was so arranged by 
Catiline, had been declared in the Senate by Cicero himself, 
on that day when Catiline told them of the two bodies and 
the two heads. Cicero, with his intelligence, ingenuity, and 
industry had learned every detail. There was one Curius 
among the conspirators, a fair specimen of the young 
Roman nobleman of the day, who told it all to his mistress 
Fulvia, and she carried the information to the Consul. It 

1 Pro Murena, xxv. 
Darent operam consules ne quid detriment! respublica capiat." 



268 LIFE OF CICERO. 

is all narrated with, fair dramatic accuracy in Ben Jonson's 
dull play ; though he has attributed to Csesar a share in 
the plot for doing which he had no authority. Cicero, on 
that sitting in the Senate, had been specially anxious to 
make Catiline understand that he knew privately every 
circumstance of the plot. Throughout the whole conspiracy 
his object was, not to take Catiline, but to drive him out 
of Rome. If the people could be stirred up to kill him 
in their wrath, that might be well. In that way there might 
be an end of all the trouble. But if that did not come to 
pass, then it would be best to make the city unbearable to 
the conspirators. If they could be driven out they must 
either take themselves to foreign parts and be dispersed, 
or must else fight and assuredly be conquered. Cicero him- 
self was never bloodthirsty, but the necessity was strong upon 
him of ridding the Eepublic from these bloodthirsty men. 

The scheme for destroying Cicero and the senators on the 
27th October had proved abortive. On the 6th of the next 
month a meeting was held in the house of one Marcus 
Porcius Lseca, at which a plot was arranged for the killing 
of Cicero the next day, for the killing of Cicero alone, he 
having been by this time found to be the one great obstacle 
in their path. Two knights were told off for the service, 
named Vargunteius and Cornelius. These, after^ the Roman 
fashion, were to make their way early on the following 
morning into the Consul's bedroom for the ostensible purpose 
of paying him their morning compliments, but, when there, 
they were to slay him. All this however was told to Cicero, 
and the two knights, when they came, were refused 



CATILINE. 269 

admittance. If Cicero had been a man given to fear, as has 
been said of him, he must have passed a wretched life at 
this period. As far as I can judge of his words and doings 
throughout his life he was not harassed by constitutional 
timidity. He feared to disgrace his name, to lower his 
authority, to become small in the eyes of men, to make poli- 
tical mistakes, to do that which might turn against him. In 
much of this there was a falling off from that dignity, which, 
if we do not often find it in a man, we can all of us imagine. 
But of personal dread as to his own skin, as to his own life, 
there was very little. At this time, when, as he knew well, 
many men with many weapons in their hands, men who 
were altogether unscrupulous, were in search for his blood, 
he never seems to have trembled. 

But all Eome trembled, even according to Sallust. I 
have already shown how he declares in one part of his 
narrative that the common people as a body were with 
Catiline, and have attempted to explain what was meant 
by that expression. In another in an earlier chapter 
he says, " that the State," meaning the city, " was dis- 
turbed by all this and its appearance changed. 1 Instead 
of the joy and ease which had lately prevailed, the effect 
of the long peace, a sudden sadness fell upon every one." 
I quote the passage because that other passage has been 
taken as proving the popularity of Catiline. There can, I 
think, be no doubt that the population of Eome was as a 
body afraid of Catiline. The city was to be burned down, 

1 Cati]inaria, xxxi. 



270 LIFE OF CICERO. 

the Consuls and the Senate were to be murdered, debts were 
to be wiped out, slaves were probably to be encouraged 
against their masters. The " permota civitas " t and ''the 
" cuncta plebes " of which Sallust speaks mean that all the 
" householders " were disturbed, and that all the " roughs " 
were eager with revolutionary hopes. 

On the 8th of November, the day after that on which the 
Consul was to have been murdered in his own house, he 
called a special meeting of the Senate in the temple of 
Jupiter Stator. The Senate in Cicero's time was convened 
according to expedience, or perhaps as to the dignity of the 
occasion, in various temples. Of these none had a higher 
reputation than that of the special Jupiter who is held 
to have befriended Romulus in his fight with the Sabines. 
Here was launched that thunderbolt of eloquence which all 
English schoolboys have known for its " Quousque tandem 
abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra." Whether it be from the 
awe which has come down to me from my earliest years, mixed 
perhaps with something of dread for the great pedagogue who 
first made the words to sound grandly in my ears, or 
whether true critical judgment has since approved to me 
the real weight of the words, they certainly do contain 
for my intelligence an expression of almost divine indig- 
nation. Then there follows a string of questions, which to 
translate would be vain, which to quote, for those who read 
the language, is surely unnecessary. It is said to have been 
a fault with Cicero that in his speeches he runs too much 
into that vein of wrathful interrogation which undoubtedly 
palls upon us in English oratory when frequent resort is 



CATILINE. 271 

made to it. It seems to be too easy and to contain too little 
of argument. It was this, probably, of which his contempo- 
raries complained when they declared him to be florid, 
redundant and Asiatic in his style. 1 This questioning runs 
through nearly the whole speech, but the reader cannot fail 
to acknowledge its efficacy in reference to the matter in 
hand. Catiline was sitting there himself in the Senate, and 
the questions were for the most part addressed to him. We 
can see him now, a man of large frame, with bold glaring 
eyes, looking in his wrath as though he were hardly able 
to keep his hands from the Consul's throat, even there in the 
Senate. Though he knew that this attack was to be made 
on him he had stalked into the temple and seated himself 
in a place of honour, among the benches intended for those 
who had been Consuls. When there no one spoke to him, no 
one saluted him. The consular senators shrank away, 
leaving their places of privilege. Even his brother con- 
spirators, of whom many were present, did not dare to 
recognise him. Lentulus was no doubt there, and Cethegus, 
and two of the Sullan family, and Cassius Longinus, and 
Autronius, and Lseca, and Curius. All of them were or 
had been conspirators in the same cause. Csesar was there 
too and Crassus. A fellow-conspirator with Catiline would 
probably be a senator. Cicero knew them all. We cannot 
say that in this matter Caesar was guilty, but Cicero, no 
doubt felt that Cesar's heart was with Catiline. It was his 
present task so to thunder with his eloquence, that he should 

1 Qukitilian, lib. xii. 10. " Quern tamen et suorum homines temporum 
incessere audebant, ut tuuiidiorem, et asianum, et redundantem." 



272 LIFE OF CICERO. 

turn these bitter enemies into seeming friends, to drive 
Catiline from out of the midst of them, so that it should 
seem that he had been expelled by those who were in 
truth his brother conspirators. And this it was that 
he did. 

He declared the nature of the plot, and boldly said that 
such being the facts, Catiline deserved death. " If," he says, 
" I should order you to be taken and killed, believe me, I 
should be blamed rather for my delay in doing so than for 
my cruelty." He spoke throughout as though all the power 
were in his own hands, either to strike or to forbear. But 
it was his object to drive him out and not to kill him. " Go," 
he said. " That camp of yours and Mallius, your lieutenant, 
are too long without you. Take your friends with you. 
Take them all. Cleanse the city of your presence, When 
its walls are between you and me then I shall feel myself 
secure. Among us here you may no longer stir yourself. I 
will not have it. I will not endure it. If I were to suffer 
you to be killed, your followers in the conspiracy would 
remain here ; but if you go out, as I desire you, this cesspool 
of filth will drain itself off from out the city. Do you 
hesitate to do at my command that which you would fain 
do yourself ? The Consul requires an enemy to depart from 
the city. Do you ask me whether you are to go into exile ? 
I do not order it ; but if you ask my counsel, I advise it." 
Exile was the severest punishment known by the Eoman 
law, as applicable to a citizen, and such a punishment it was 
in the power of no Consul or other officer of state to inflict. 
Though he had taken upon himself the duty of protecting 



CATILINE. 273 

the Republic, still he could not condemn a citizen. It was 
to the moral effect of his words that he must trust ; " Non 
jubeo, sed si me consulis, suadeo." Catiline heard him to 
the end, and then muttering a curse, left the Senate, and 
went out of the city. Sallust tells us that he threatened 
to extinguish, in the midst of the general ruin he would 
create, the flames prepared for his own destruction. Sallust 
however was not present on the occasion, and the threat 
probably had been uttered at an earlier period of Catiline's 
career. Cicero tells us expressly in one of his subsequent 
works that Catiline was struck dumb. 1 

Of this first Catiline oration Sallust says, that " Marcus 
Tullius the Consul, either fearing the presence of the man, 
or stirred to anger, made a brilliant speech, very useful to 
the Republic. 2 " This coming from an enemy is stronger 
testimony to the truth of the story told by Cicero, than would 
have been any vehement praise from the pen of a friend. 

Catiline met some of his colleagues the same night. They 
were the very men who as senators had been present at his 
confusion, and to them he declared his purpose of going. 
There was nothing to be done in the city by him. The 
Consul was not to be reached. Catiline himself was too 
closely watched for personal action. He would join the 
army at Fsesula3 and then return and burn the city. His 
friends, Lentulus, Cethegus, and the others, were to remain 
and be ready for fire and slaughter as soon as Catiline with 

1 Orator, xxxvii. "A nob is homo audacissimus Catilina in senatu accusatus 
cbmutuit. " 
: 2 Catiliuaria xxxi. 

VOL. I. T 



274 LIFE OF CICERO. 

his army should appear before the walls. He went, and 
Cicero had been so far successful. 

But these men, Lentulus, Cethegus, and the other senators, 
though they had not dared to sit near Catiline in the Senate 
or to speak a word to him, went about their work zealously 
when evening had come. A report was spread among the 
people that the Consul had taken upon himself to drive a 
citizen into exile. Catiline, the ill-used Catiline, Catiline the 
friend of the people, had, they said, gone to Marseilles in 
order that he might escape the fury of the tyrant Consul. 
In this we see the jealousy of Eomans as to the infliction of 
any punishment by an individual officer on a citizen. It was 
with a full knowledge of what was likely to come that Cicero 
had ironically declared that he only advised the conspirator 
to go. The feeling was so strong that on the next morning 
he found himself compelled to address the people on the 
subject. Then was uttered the second Catiline oration, 
which was spoken in the open air to the citizens at large. 
Here too there are words, among those with which he began 
his speech, almost as familiar to us as the " Quousque 
tandem," " Abiit ; excessit ; evasit ; erupit ! " This Catiline, 
says Cicero, this pest of his country, raging in his madness, 
I have turned out of the city. ' If you like it better I have 
expelled him by my very words. " He has departed. He 
has fled. He has gone out from among us. He has broken 
away ! " "I have made this conspiracy plain to you all, as I 
said I would, unless indeed there may be some one here 
who does not believe that the friends of Catiline will do the 
same as Catiline would have done. But there is no time 



CATILINE. 275 

now for soft measures. We have to be strong-handed. 
There is one thing I will do for these men. Let them too 
go out ; so that Catiline shall not pine for them. I. will 
show them the road. He has gone by the Via Aurelia. If 
they will hurry they may catch him before night." He 
implies by this that the story about Marseilles was false. 
Then he speaks with irony of himself as that violent Consul 
who could drive citizens into exile by the very breath of his 
mouth. "Ego vehemens ille consul qui verbo cives in 
exsilium ejicio." So he goes on, in truth, defending himself, 
but leading them with him to take part in the accusation 
which he intends to bring against the chief conspirators 
who remain in the city. If they too will go, they may 
go, unscathed. If they choose to remain let them look to 
themselves. 

Through it all we can see there is but one thing that he 

O O 

fears ; that he shall be driven by the exigencies of the 
occasion to take some steps which shall afterwards be judged 
not to have been strictly legal, and which shall put him into 
the power of his enemies when the day of his ascendency 
shall have passed away. It crops out repeatedly in these 
speeches. 1 He seems to be aware that some over-strong 
measure will be forced upon him for which he alone will be 

1 In the first of them, to the Senate, chap, ix., he declares this to Catilin 
himself, "simea voce pertenitus ire in exsilium. animum induxeris, quanta 
tempestas invidipe nobis, si minus in praesens tempns, recent! memoria 
scelerum tuorum, at in posteritatem impendeat." He goes on to declare that he 
will endure all that, if by so doing he can save the Republic. " Sed est 
mini tanti ; dummodo ista privata sit calamitas, et a reipublicse periculis 
sejungatur." 

T 2 



276 LIFE OF CICERO. 

held responsible. If he can only avoid that, he will fear 
nothing else. If he cannot avoid it, he will encounter even 
that danger. His foresight was wonderfully accurate. The 
strong hand w r as used, and the punishment came upon him, 
not from his enemies but from his friends, almost to the 
bursting of his heart. 

Though the Senate had decreed that the Consuls were to 
see that the Eepublic should take no harm, and though it was 
presumed that extraordinary power was thereby conferred, it 
is evident that no power was conferred of inflicting punish- 
ment. Antony, as Cicero's colleague, was nothing. The 
authority, the responsibility, the action were, and were in- 
tended to remain with Cicero. He could not legally banish 
any one. It was only too evident that there must be much 
slaughter. There was the army of rebels with which it would 
be necessary to fight. Let them go, these rebels within the 
city and either join the army and get themselves killed, or 
else disappear, whither they would, among the provinces. 
The object of this second Catiline oration, spoken to the 
people, was to convince the remaining conspirators that they 
had better go, and to teach the citizens generally that in 
giving such counsel he was " banishing " no one. As far as 
the citizens were concerned he was successful. But he did 
not induce the friends of Catiline to follow their chief. This 
took place on the 9th of November. After the oration the 
Senate met again, and declared Catiline and Mallius to be 
public enemies. 

Twenty-four days elapsed before the third speech was 
spoken, twenty-four days during which Rome must have 



CATILINE. 277 

been in a state of very great fever. Cicero was actively 
engaged in unravelling the plots the details of which were 
still being carried on within the city; but nevertheless he 
made that speech for Murena before the judicial bench of 
which I gave an account in the last chapter, and also pro- 
bably another for Piso of which we have nothing left. We 
cannot but marvel that he should have been able at such a 
time to devote his mind to such subjects and carefully to 
study all the details of legal cases. It was only on October 
21st that Murena had been elected Consul; and yet on the 
20th November, Cicero defended him with great skill on a 
charge of bribery. There is an ease, a playfulness, a softness, 
a drollery about this speech which appears to be almost 
incompatible with the stern absorbing realities and great 
personal dangers in the midst of which he was placed. But 
the agility of his mind was such that there appears to have 
been no difficulty to him in these rapid changes. 

On the same day, the 20th November, when Cicero was 
defending Murena, the plot was being carried on at the house 
of a certain Roman lady named Sempronia. It was she of 
whom Sallust said, that she danced better than became an 
honest woman. If we can believe Sallust she was steeped in 
luxury and vice. At her house a most vile project was 
hatched for introducing into Borne Rome's bitterest foreign 
foes. There were in the city at this time certain delegates 
from a people called the Allobroges who inhabited the lower 
part of Savoy. The Allobroges were of Gaulish race. They 
were warlike, angry, and at the present moment peculiarly 
discontented with Rome. There had been certain injuries 



278 LIFE OF CICERO. 

either real or presumed, respecting which these delegates 
had been sent to the city. There they had been delayed, and 
fobbed off with official replies which gave no satisfaction, and 
were supposed to be ready to do any evil possible to the 
Eepublic. What if they could be got to go back suddenly to 
their homes, and bring a legion of red-haired Gauls to assist 
the conspirators in burning down Rome ? A deputation from 
the delegates came to Sempronia's house and there met the 
conspirators, Lentulus and others. They entered freely into 
the project ; but, having, as was usual with foreign embassies 
at Rome, a patron, or peculiar friend of their own among the 
aristocracy, one Fabius Sanga by name, they thought it well 
to- consult him. 1 Sanga as a matter of course told everything 
to our astute Consul. 

Then the matter was arranged with more than all the craft 
of a modern Inspector of Police. The Allobroges were in- 
structed to lend themselves to the device, stipulating 
however that they should have a written signed authority 
which they could show to their rulers at home. The written 
signed documents were given to them. With certain con- 
spirators to help them out of the city they were sent upon 
their way. At a bridge over the Tiber they were stopped by 
Cicero's emissaries. There was a feigned fight, but no blood 
was shed ; and the ambassadors with their letters were 
brought home to the Consul. 

We are astonished at the marvellous folly of these 



1 Sallust, Catilinaria, xli. " Itaque Q. Fabio Sangre cujus patrocinio 
civitaa plurimum utebatur rein oinnem uti cognoverant aperiuut." 



CATILINE. 279 

conspirators, so that we could hardly have believed the story 
had it not been told alike by Cicero and by Sallust, and 
had not allusion to the details been common among later 
"writers. 1 The ambassadors were taken at the Milvian bridge 
early on the morning of the 3rd December, and in the course of 
that day Cicero sent for the leaders of the conspiracy to come 
to him. Lentulus, who was then Praetor, Cethegus, Gabinius, 
and Statilius, all obeyed the summons. They did not know 
what had occurred and probably thought that their best hope 
of safety lay in compliance. Cseparius was also sent for ; but 
he for the moment escaped ; in vain ; for before two days 
were over he had been taken and put to death with the others. 
Cicero again called the Senate together, and entered the 
meeting leading the guilty Prsetor by the hand. Here the 
offenders were examined and practically acknowledged their 
guilt. The proofs against them were so convincing that they 
could not deny it. There were the signatures of some. Arms 
were found hidden in the house of another. The Senate 
decreed that the men should be kept in durance till some 
decision as to their fate should have been pronounced. Each 
of them was then given in custody to some noble Pioman of 
the day. Lentulus the Prsetor w^as confided to the keeping 
of a censor, Cethegus to Cornificius, Statilius to Csesar, 



1 Horace, Epo. xvi. 6. " Novisque rebus infidelis Allobrox." The un- 
happy Savoyard has from this line been known through ages as a conspi- 
rator, false even to his fellow conspirators. 

Juvenal, vii. 214. " Rufum qni toties Ciceronem Allobroga dixit." Some 
Eufus acting as advocate had thought to put down Cicero by calling him 
an Allobrogian. 



280 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Gabinius to Crassus, and Cseparius, who had not fled very 
far before he was taken, to one Terentius. "We can imagine 
how willingly would Crassus and Csesar have let their men 
go, had they dared. But Cicero was in the ascendent. Caesar, 
whom we can imagine to have understood that the hour had 
not yet come for putting an end to the effete Republic, anl 
to have perceived also that Catiline was no fit help-mate 
for him in such a work, must bide his time and for the 
moment obey. That he was inclined to favour the con- 
spirators there is no doubt.; but at present he could befriend 
them, only in accordance with the law. The Allobroges were 
rewarded. The Praetors in the city who had assisted Cicero 
were thanked. To Cicero himself a supplication was decreed. 
A supplication was, in its origin, a thanksgiving to the gods 
on account of a victory, but had come to be an honour shown 
to the General who had gained the victory. In this case it 
was simply a means of adding glory to Cicero, and was 
peculiar, as hitherto the reward had only been conferred for 
military service. 1 Eemembering that, we can understand 
what at the time must have been the feeling in Rome as to 
the benefits conferred by the activity and patriotism of the 
Consul. 

On the evening of the same day, the 3rd of December, 
Cicero again addressed the people explaining to them what 
he had done and what he had before explained in the Senate. 

1 The words in which this honour was conferred he himself repeats. 
"Quod urbem incendiis, crede cives, Italiam bello liberassem." "Because 
I had rescued the city from fire, the citizens from slaughter, and Italy 
from war." 



CATILINE. 281 

This was the third Catiline speech, and for rapid narrative 
is perhaps surpassed by nothing that he ever spoke. He 
explains again the motives by which he had been actuated ; 
and in doing so extols the courage, the sagacity, the activity 
of Catiline, while he ridicules the folly and the fury of the 
others. 1 Had Catiline remained, he says, we should have 
been forced to fight with him here in the city; but with 
Lentulus the sleepy, and Cassius the fat, and Cethegus the 
mad, it has been comparatively easy to deal. It was on this 
account that he had got rid of him, knowing that their 
presence would do no harm. Then he reminds the people 
of all that the gods have done for them, and addresses them 
in language which makes one feel that they did believe in 
their gods. It is one instance, one out of many which 
history and experience afford us, in which an honest and a 
good man has endeavoured to use for salutary purposes a 
faith in which he has not himself participated. Does the 
bishop of to-day when he calls upon his clergy to pray for 
fine weather believe that the Almighty will change the 
ordained seasons, and cause his causes to be inoperative 
because farmers are anxious for their hay or for their wheat ? 
But he feels that when men are in trouble it is well that 
they should hold communion with the powers of Heaven. 
So much also Cicero believed, and therefore spoke as he did 



1 It is necessary in all oratory to read something between the lines. It 
is allowed to the speaker to produce effect by diminishing and exaggerating. 
I think we should detract something from the praises bestowed on Cati- 
line's military virtues. The bigger Catiline could be made to appear, the 
greater would be the honour of having driven him out of the city. 



2S2 LIFE OF CICERO. 

on this occasion. As to his own religious views I shall say 
something in a future chapter. 

Then in a passage, most beautiful for its language though 
it is hardly in accordance with our idea of the manner in 
which a man should speak of himself, he explains his own 
ambition. " For all which my fellow-countrymen, I ask for 
no other recompense, no ornament of honour, no monument 
but that this day may live in your memories. It is within 
your breasts that I would garner and keep fresh my triumph, 
my glory, the trophies of my exploits. No silent voiceless 
statue, nothing which can be bestowed upon the worthless can 
give me delight. Only by your remembrance can my for- 
tunes be nurtured, by your good words, by the records which 
you shall cause to be written, can they be strengthened and 
perpetuated. I do think that this day, the memory of which, 
I trust, may be eternal, will be famous in history because 
the city has been preserved and because my Consulship has 
been glorious." 1 He ends the paragraph by an allusion to 
Pompey, admitting Pompey to a brotherhood of patriotism 
and praise. We shall see how Pompey repaid him. 

How many things must have been astir in his mind when 
he spoke those words of Pompey ! In the next sentence he 
tells the people of his own danger. He has taken care of 
their safety. It is for them to take care of his. 2 But they, 
these Q unites, these Eoman citizens, these masters of the 
world by whom everything was supposed to be governed, 
could take care of no one ; certainly not of themselves ; as 

1 In Catilinam, iii. xi. 

8 In Catilinam, ibid. xii. " Ne mihi noceant vestrum est providere." 



. CATILINE. 283 

certainly not of another. They could only vote, now this 
way and now that, as somebody might tell them, or more 
probably, as somebody might pay them. Pompey was 
coming home and would soon be the favourite. Cicero must 
have felt that he had deserved much of Pompey ; but was 
by no means sure that the debt of gratitude would be paid. 

Now we come to the fourth or last Catiline oration, which 
was made to the Senate, convened on the 5th December with 
the purpose of deciding the fate of the leading conspirators 
who were held in custody. We learn to what purport were 
three of the speeches made during this debate; those of 
Caesar and of Cato and of Cicero. The two first are given 
to us by Sallust, but we can hardly think that we have the 
exact words. The Csesarean spirit which induced Sallust to 
ignore altogether the words of Cicero would have induced 
him to give his own representation of the other two, even 
though we were t9 suppose that he had been able to have 
them taken down by shorthand writers. Cicero's words we 
have no doubt, with such polishing as may have been 
added to the shorthand writers' notes by Tiro his slave 
and secretary. The three are compatible each with the 
other, and we are entitled to believe that we know the 
line of argument used by the three orators. 

Silanus one of the Consuls elect began the debate by 
counselling death. We may take it for granted that he had 
been persuaded by Cicero to make this proposition. During 
the discussion he trembled at the consequences and declared 
himself for an adjournment of their decision till they 
should hav.e dealt with Catiline. Murena, the other Consul 



284 LIFE OF CICERO. 

elect, and Catulus, the Prince of the Senate, 1 spoke for death. 
Tiberius Nero, grandfather of Tiberius the Emperor, made 
that proposition for adjournment to which Silanus gave way. 
Then, or I should rather say in the course of the debate, for 
we do not know who else may have spoken, Csesar got up, 
and made his proposition. His purpose was to save the 
victims, but he knew well that with such a spirit abroad as 
that existing in the Senate and the city he could only do so 
not by absolving but by condemning. Wicked as these men 
might be, abominably wicked, it was, he said, for the Senate 
to think of their own dignity rather than of the enormity 
of the crime. As they could not, he suggested, invent any 
new punishment adequate to so abominable a crime, it would 
be better that they should leave the conspirators to be dealt 
with by the ordinary laws. It was thus that cunningly he 
threw out the idea that as Senators they had no power of 
death. He did not dare to tell them directly that any 
danger would menace them, but he exposed the danger 
skilfully, before their eyes. "Their crimes," he says again, 
"deserve worse than any torture you can inflict. But men 
generally recollect what comes last. When the punishment 
is severe, men will remember the severity rather than the 
crime." He argues all this extremely well. The speech is 
one of great ingenuity whether the words be the words 
of Sallust or of Csesar. We may doubt indeed whether the 

1 " Prince of the Senate " was an honorary title conferred on some man 
of mark as a dignity ; at this period on some ex-Consul. It conferred no 
power. Cicero, the Consul who had convened the Senate, called on the 
speakers as he thought fit. 



CATILINE. 285 

general assertion he made as to death had much weight with 
the Senators, when he told them that death to the wicked 
was a relief, whereas life was a lasting punishment; but 
when he went on to remind them of the " Lex Porcia," by 
which the power of punishing a Roman citizen, even under 
the laws, was limited to banishment, unless by a plebiscite 
of the people generally ordering death, then he was effica- 
cious. He ended by proposing that the goods of the 
conspirators should be sold and that the men should be 
condemned to imprisonment for life, each in some separate 
town. This would, I believe, have been quite as illegal as 
the death-sentence, but it would not have been irrevocable. 
The Senate, or the people, in the next year could have 
restored to the men their liberty and compensated them for 
their property. Cicero was determined that the men should 
die. They had not obeyed him by leaving the city, and he 
was convinced that while they lived the conspiracy would 
live also. He fully understood the danger and resolved to 
meet it. He replied to Csesar and with infinite skill re- 
frained from the expression of any strong opinion, while he 
led his hearers to the conviction that death was necessary. 
For himself he had been told of his danger ; " but if a man 
be brave in his duty death cannot be disgraceful to him ; to 
one who had reached the honours of the Consulship it could 
not be premature ; to no wise man could it be a misery." 
Though his brother, though his wife, though his little boy 
and his daughter just married were warning him of his 
peril, not by all that would he be influenced. " Do you," he 
says, " Conscript Fathers, look to the safety of the Republic. 



286 LIFE OF CICERO. 

These are not the Gracchi, nor Saturninus, who are brought 
to you for judgment ; men who broke the laws indeed, and 
therefore suffered death, but who still were not unpatriotic. 
These men had sworn to burn the city, to slay the Senate, 
to force Catiline upon you as a ruler. The proofs of this are 
in your own hands. It was for me, as your Consul, to bring 
the facts before you. Now it is for you, at once, before 
night, to decide what shall be done. The conspirators are 
very many. It is not only with these few that you are 
dealing. On whatever you decide, decide quickly. Caesar 
tells you of the Sempronian law, 1 the law namely forbidding 
the death of a Koman citizen, but can he be regarded as 
a citizen who has been found in arms against the city ? " 
Then there is a fling at Csesar's assumed clemency, showing 
us that CiBsar had already endeavoured to make capital 
out of that virtue which he displayed afterwards so signally 
at Alesia and Uxellodimum. Then again he speaks of 
himself in words so grand that it is impossible but to 
sympathise with him. "Let Scipio's name be glorious, 
he by whose wisdom and valour Hannibal was forced out of 
Italy. Let Africanus be praised loudly, who destroyed 
Carthage and Numantia, the two cities which were most 
hostile to Borne. Let Paullus be regarded as great, he, 



1 Csesar according to Sallust had referred to the " Lex Porcia." Cicero 
alludes, and makes Caesar allude, to the " Lex Sempronia." The Porciaii law, 
as we are told by Livy, was passed B.C. 299, and forbade that a Roman should 
be scourged or put to death. The " Lex Sempronia " was introduced by C. 
Gracchus, and enacted that the life of a citizen should not be taken without 
the voice o( the citizens. 



CATILINE. 287 

whose triumph that great King Perses adorned. Let Harms 
be held in undying honour, who twice saved Italy from 
foreign yoke. Let Pompey be praised above all, whose noble 
deeds are as wide as the sun's course. Perhaps among them 
there may be a spot, too, for me, unless, indeed, to win pro- 
vinces to which we may take ourselves in exile is more than 
to guard that city to which the conquerors of provinces may 
return in safety." The last words of the orator also are fine. 
" Therefore, Conscript Fathers, decide wisely and withouj: 
fear. Your own safety, and that of your wives and children, 
that of your hearths and altars, the temples of your gods, 
the homes contained in your city, your liberty, the welfare 
of Italy and of the whole Eepublic are at stake. It is 
for you to decide. In me you have a Consul who will obey 
your decrees, and will see that they be made to prevail 
while the breath of life remains to him." Cato then spoke 
advocating death, and the Senate decreed that the men 
should die. Cicero himself led Lentulus down to the 
vaulted prison below, in which executioners were ready for 
the work, and the other four men were made to follow. A 
few minutes afterwards, in the gloaming of the evening, 
when Cicero was being led home by the applauding 
multitude he was asked after the fate of the conspira- 
tors. He answered them but by one word. "Vixerunt." 
There is said to have been a superstition with the Romans 
as to all mention of death. " They have lived their 
lives." 

As to what was being done outside Eome with the army 
of conspirators in Etruria, it is not necessary for the 



288 LIFE OF CICERO. 

biographer of Cicero to . say much. Catiline fought and 
died fighting. The conspiracy was then over. On the 
31st December Cicero retired from his office, and Catiline 
fell at the battle of Pistoia on the 5th January following, 
B.C. 62. 

A Roman historian writing in the reign of Tiberius has 
thought it worth his while to remind us that a great glory was 
added to Cicero's consular year by the birth of Augustus ; 
him, who afterwards became Augustus Caesar. 1 Had a 
Eoman been living now he might be excused for saying that 
it was an honour to Augustus to have been born in the year 
of Cicero's Consulship. 



1 Velleius Paterculus, xxxvi. " Consulatui Ciceronis nou mediocre adjecit 
tlecus natus eo anuo Divus Augustus. " 



CHAPTEE X. 

CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 

THE idea that the great Consul had done illegally in 
putting citizens to death was not allowed to lie dormant 
even for a day. It must be remembered that a decree of 
the Senate had no power as a law. The laws could be 
altered, or even a new law made, only by the people. Such 
was the constitution of the Eepublic. Further on, when 
Cicero will appear as, in fact, on trial for the offence so 
alleged to have been committed, I shall have to discuss the 
matter; but the point was raised against him, even in the 
moment of his triumph, as he was leaving the Consulship. 
The reiteration of his self-praise had created for him many 
enemies. It had turned friends against him, and had driven 
men even of his own party to ask themselves whether all 
this virtue was to be endured. When a man assumes to 
be more just than his neighbours there will be many ways 
found of throwing in a shell against him. It was customary 
for a Consul when he vacated his office to make some 
valedictory speech. Cicero was probably expected to take 
full advantage of the opportunity. From other words which 
have come from him, on other occasions but on the same 
subject, it would not be difficult to compose such a speech 
VOL. i. u 



290 LIFE OF CICERO. 

as he might have spoken. But there were those who were 
already sick of hearing him say that Rome had been saved 
by his intelligence and courage. We can imagine what 
Caesar might have said among his friends of the ex- 
pediency of putting down this self-laudatory Consul. As 
it was, Metellus Nepos, one of the Tribunes, forbade the 
retiring officer to do more than take the oath usual on 
leaving office, because he had illegally inflicted death upon 
Roman citizens. Metellus as Tribune had the power of 
stopping any official proceeding. We hear from Cicero 
himself that he was quite equal to the occasion. He swore 
on the spur of the moment a solemn oath, not in accordance 
with the form common to Consuls on leaving office, but to 
the effect that during his Consulship Rome had been saved 
by his work alone. 1 We have the story only as it is told by 
Cicero himself who avers that the people accepted the oath 
as sworn with exceeding praise. 2 That it was so we may I 
think take as true. There can be no doubt as to Cicero's 
popularity at this moment, and hardly a doubt also as to the 
fact that Metellus was acting in agreement with Caesar, and 
also in accord with the understood feelings of Pompey who 
was absent with his army in the East. This Tribune had 
been till lately an officer under Pompey, and went into office 
together with Caesar who in that year became Praetor. This 
probably was the beginning of the party which two years 

1 In Pisonem iii. " Sine ulla dubitatione juravi rempublicam atque hanc 
urbem mea unius opera esse salvam." 

8 Dio Cassius tells the same story, lib. xxxvii. ca. 38., but he adds that 
Cicero was more hated than ever because of the oath he took. " KO.\ S /j.ev Kal 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULS III P. 291 

afterwards formed the first Trumvirate B.C. 60. It was 
62 certainty now > i n the year succeeding the Consulship 
setat45. O f (jicero that Csesar, as Prsetor, began his great 
career. It becomes manifest to us, as we read the history of 
the time, that the Dictator of the future was gradually en- 
tertaining the idea that the old forms of the Eepublic were 
rotten, and that any man who intended to exercise power 
in Rome or within the Eoman Empire must obtain it and 
keep it by illegal means. He had probably adhered to 
Catiline's first conspiracy, but only with such moderate ad- 
hesion as enabled him to withdraw when he found that his 
companions were not fit for the work. It is manifest that he 
sympathised with the later conspiracy though it may be 
doubted whether he himself had ever been a party to it. 
When the conspiracy had been crushed by Cicero, he had 
given his full assent to the crushing of it. We have seen 
how loudly he condemned the wickedness of the conspirators 
in his endeavour to save their lives. But, through it all, 
there was a well-grounded conviction in his mind that Cicero 
with all his virtues was not practical. Not that Cicero was 
to him the same as Cato, who with his Stoic grandiloquence 
must to his thinking have been altogether useless. Cicero, 
though too virtuous for supreme rule, too virtuous to seize 
power and hold it, too virtuous to despise as effete the 
institutions of the Eepublic, was still a man so gifted, and 
capable in so many things, as to be very great as an assistant, 
if he would only condescend to assist. It is in this light 
that Ceesar seems to have regarded Cicero as time went on, 
admiring him, liking him, willing to act with him if it 

u 2 



292 LIFE OF CICERO. 

might be possible, but not the less determined to put down all 
the attempts at patriotic republican virtue in which the orator 
delighted to indulge. Mr. Forsyth expresses an opinion that 
Csesar, till he crossed the Rubicon after his ten years fighting 
in Gaul, had entertained no settled plan of overthrowing the 
Constitution. Probably not ; nor even then. It may be 
doubted whether Csesar ever spoke to himself of overthrow- 
ing the Constitution. He came gradually to see that power 
and wealth were to be obtained by violent action and only 
by violent action. He had before him the examples of 
Marius and Sulla, both of whom had enjoyed power and 
had died in their beds. There was the example also of 
others who walking unwarily in those perilous times had 
been banished as was Verres, or killed as was Catiline. We 
can easily understand that he, with his great genius, should 
have acknowledged the need both of courage and caution. 
Both were exercised when he consented to be absent from 
Rome, and almost from Italy, during the ten years of the Gallic 
wars. But this, I think, is certain that from the time in 
which his name appears prominent, from the period namely 
of the Catiline conspiracy, he had determined, not to over- 
throw the Constitution, but so to carry himself amidst the 
great affairs of the day as not to be overthrown himself. 

Of what nature was the intercourse between him and 
Pompey when Pompey was still absent in the East we do 
not know ; but we can hardly doubt that some understand- 
ing had begun to exist. Of this Cicero was probable aware. 
Pompey was the man whom Cicero chose to regard as his 
party leader, not having himself been inured to the actual 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 293 

politics of Eome early enough in life to put himself 
forward as the leader of his party. It had been necessary 
for him as a " Novus Homo " to coine forward and work 
as an advocate and then as an administrative officer of the 
State, before he took up with politics. That this was so 
I have shown by quoting the opening words of his speech 
" Pro Lege Manilia." Proud as he was of the doings of his 
Consulship, he was still too new to his work to think that 
thus he could claim to stand first. Nor did his ambition 
lead him in that direction. He desired personal praise 
rather than personal power. When in the last Catiline 
oration to the people he speaks of the great men of the 
Republic, of the two Scipios, and of Paulus Emilius, and of 
Marius, he adds the name of Pompey to these names ; or 
gives, rather, to Pompey greater glory than to any of them. 
" Anteponatur omnibus Pompeius." This was but a few 
days before Metellus as Tribune had stopped him in his 
speech, at the instigation probably of Caesar, and in further- 
ance of Pompey's views. Pompey and Caesar could agree 
at any rate in this, that they did not want such a one as 
Cicero to interfere with them. 

All of which Cicero himself perceived. The specially 
rich province of Macedonia, which would have been his had 
he chosen to take it on quitting the Consulship, he made 
over to Antony, no doubt as a bribe, as with us one 
statesman may resign a special office to another to keep 
that other from kicking over the traces. Then Gaul became 
his province as allotted ; Cisalpine Gaul, as northern Italy 
was then called; a province less rich in plunder and pay than 



294 . LIFE OF CICERO. 

Macedonia. But Cicero wanted no province and had con- 
trived that this should be confided to Metellus Celer the 
brother of Nepos, who having been Praetor when he himself 
was Consul, was entitled to a government. This too was 
a political bribe. If courtesy to Caesar, if provinces given 
up here and there to Antonys and Metelluses, if flattery 
lavished on Pompey could avail anything, he could not 
afford to dispense v/ith such aids. It all availed nothing. 
From this time forward for the twenty years which 
were to run before his death, his life was one always of 
trouble and doubt, often of despair, and on many occasions 
of actual misery. The source of this was that Pompey 
whom, with divine attributes, he had extolled above all 
other Eomaus. 

The first extant letter written by Cicero after his Consul- 
ship was addressed to Pompey. 1 Pompey was still in the 
East but had completed his campaigns against Mithridates 
successfully. Cicero begins by congratulating him, as though 
to do so were the purpose of his letter. Then he tells the 
victorious general that there were some in Eome not so well 
pleased as he was at these victories. It is supposed that 
he alluded here to Caesar ; but, if so, he probably misunder- 
stood the alliance which was already being formed between 
Caesar and Pompey. After that comes the real object of the 
epistle. He had received letters from Pompey congratulating 

1 It is the only letter given in the collection as having been addressed 
direct to Pompey. In two letters written some years later to Atticus, B.C. 49, 
lib. viii. 11, and lib. viii. 12, he sends copies of a correspondence between 
himself and Pompey and two of the Pompeian generals. 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 295 

him in very cold language as to the glories of his Consulship. 
He had expected much more than that from the friend for 
whom he had done so much. Still he thanks his friend, 



explaining that the satisfaction really necessary to him 
was the feeling that he had behaved well to his friend. If 
his friend were less friendly to him in return, then would the 
balance of friendship be on his side. If Pompey were not 
bound to him, Cicero, by personal gratitude, still would he 
be bound by necessary co-operation in the service of the 
Republic. But, lest Pompey should misunderstand him, he 
declares that he had expected warmer language in reference 
to his Consulship, which he believes to have been withheld 
by Pompey lest offence should be given to some third 
person. By this he means Caesar, and those who were now 
joining themselves to Csesar. Then he goes on to warn 
him as to the future. " Nevertheless when you return, you 
will find that my actions have been of such a nature that 
even though you may loom larger than Scipio, 1 shall be 
found worthy to be accepted as your Lselius." 1 

Infinite care had been given to the writing of this letter, 
and sharp had been the heartburnings which dictated it. 
It was only by asserting that he, on his own part, was 
satisfied with his own fidelity as a friend that Cicero could 
express his dissatisfaction at Pompey's coldness. It was 
only by ccntinuing to lavish upon Pompey such flattery as 

1 Lib. v. 7. It is hardly necessary to expLiiu that the younger Scipio and 
Lselius were as famous for their friendship as Pylades and Orestes. The 
" Virtus Scipiadte et mitis sapientia Lseli" have been made famous to us all 
by Horace. 



296 LIFE OF CICERO. 

was contained in the reference to Scipio, in which a touch 
of subtle irony is mixed with the flattery, that he could 
explain the nature of the praise which had, he thought, been 
due to himself. There is something that would have been 
abject in the nature of these expressions had it not been 
Eoman in the excess of the adulation. But there is courage 
in the letter too, when he tells his correspondent what he 
believes to have been the cause of the coldness of which he 
complains. " Quod verere ne cujus animum offenderes." 
" Because you fear lest you should give offence to some one." 
But let me tell you, he goes on to say, that my Consulship 
has been of such a nature that you, Scipio, as you are, 
must admit me as your friend. 

In these words we find a key to the whole of Cicero's 
connection with the man whom he recognises as his political 
leader. He was always dissatisfied with Pompey, always 
accusing Pompey in his heart of ingratitude and insincerity, 
frequently speaking to Atticus with bitter truth of the man's 
selfishness and incapacity, even of his cruelty and want 
of patriotism, nicknaming him because of his absurdities, 
declaring of him that he was minded to be a second Sulla, 
but still clinging to him as the political friend and leader 
whom he was bound to follow. In their earlier years, when 
he could have known personally but little of Pompey because 
Pompey was generally absent from Rome, he had taken it 
into his head to love the man. He had been called " Magnus;" 
he had been made Consul long before the proper time; he 
had been successful on behalf of the Republic, and so far 
patriotic. He had hitherto adhered to the fame of the 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 297 

Republic. At any rate Cicero had accepted him, and could 
never afterwards bring himself to be disloyal to the leader 
with whom he had professed to act. But the feeling evinced 
in this letter was carried on to the end. He had been, 
he was, he would be true to his political connection with 
Pompey ; but of Pompey's personal character to himself he 
had nothing but complaints to make. 

We have two other letters written by Cicero in this year, 
, co the first of which is in answer to one from Metellus 

-D-0- b<j, 

setat 45. Q e i er t him, also extant. Metellus wrote to com- 
plain of the ill-treatment which he thought he had received 
from Cicero in the Senate, and from the Senate generally. 
Cicero writes back at much greater length to defend himself, 
and to prove that he had behaved as a most obliging friend 
to his correspondent though he had received a gross affront 
from his correspondent's brother Nepos. Nepos had pre- 
vented him in that matter of the speech. It is hardly 
necessary to go into the question of this quarrel, except in 
so far as it may show how the feeling which led to Cicero's 
exile was growing up among many of the aristocracy in 
Rome. There was a counterplot going on at the moment, 
a plot on the behalf of the aristocracy, for bringing back 
Pompey to Rome not only with glory but with power, 
probably originating in a feeling that Pompey would be a 
more congenial master than Cicero. It was suggested that 
as Pompey had been found good in all State emergencies, 
for putting down the pirates for instance, and for conquer- 
ing Mithridates, he would be the man to contend in arms 
with Catiline. Catiline was killed before the matter could 



298 LIFE OF CICERO. 

be brought to an issue, but still the conspiracy went on, 
based on the jealousy which was felt in regard to Cicero. 
This man who had declared so often that he had served 
his country, and who really had crushed the Catilinarians 
by his industry and readiness, might after all be coming 
forward as another Sulla, and looking to make himself 
master by dint of his virtues and his eloquence. The 
hopelessness of the condition of the Republic may be re- 
cognised in the increasing conspiracies which were hatched 
on every side. Metellus Nepos was sent home from Asia 
in aid of the conspiracy, and got himself made Tribune, 
and stopped Cicero's speech. In conjunction with Caesar, 
who was Praetor, he proposed his new law for the calling 
of Pompey to their aid. Then there was a fracas between 
him and Caesar on the one side and Cato on the other, in 
which Cato at last was so far victorious that both Caesar 
and Metellus were stopped in the performance of their offi- 
cial duties. Caesar soon was reinstated, but Metellus Nepos 
returned to Pompey in the East and nothing came of the 
conspiracy. It is only noticed here as evidence of the 
feeling which existed as to Cicero in Rome, and as ex- 
plaining the irritation on both sides indicated in the 
correspondence between Cicero and Metellus Ce]er, the 
brother of Nepos, 1 for whom Cicero had procured the 
government of Gaul. 



1 These two brothers, neither of whom were remarkable for great qualities, 
though they were both to be Consuls, were the last known of the great family 
of the Metelli, a branch of the "Gens Cfecilia." Among them had been 
many who had achieved great names for themselves in Roman history, on 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 209 

The third letter from Cicero in this year was to Sextius 
who was then acting as Quaestor, or Proqusestor as Cicero 
calls him, with Antony as Proconsul in Macedonia. It 
is specially interesting as telling us that the writer had 
just completed the purchase of a house in Eome from 
Crassus for a sum amounting to about 30,000 of our 
money. There was probably no private mansion in Eome 
of greater pretension. It had been owned by Livius Drusus 
the Tribune, a man of colossal fortune as we are told by 
Hommsen, who was murdered at the door of it thirty years 
before. It afterwards passed into the hands of Crassus the 
rich, and now became the property of Cicero. We shall hear 
how it was destroyed during his exile and how fraudulently 
made over to the gods, and then how restored to Cicero, 
and how rebuilt at the public expense. The history of 
the house has been so well written that we know even 
the names of Cicero's two successors in it, Censorinus and 
Statilius. 1 

account of the territories added to the springing Roman empire by their 
victories. There had been a Macedonians, a Numidicus, a Balearicus, and a 
Creticus. It is of the first that Velleius Paterculus sings the glory, lib. i. ca. 
xi., and the elder Pliny repeats the story, His. Nat. vii. 44, that of his having 
been carried to the grave by four sons, of whom at the time of his death three 
had been Consuls, one had been a Praetor, two had enjoyed triumphal honours, 
and one had been Censor. In looking through the consular list of Cicero's 
lifetime I find that there were no less than seven taken from the family of 
the Metelli. These two brothers Metellus Nepos and Celer again became 
friends to Cicero, Nepos who had stopped his speech and assisted in forcing 
him into exile, having assisted as Consul in obtaining his recall from exile. 
It is very difficult to follow the twistings and turnings of Roman friendships 
at this period. 

1 Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii. ca. xiv. Paterculus tells us how when the 



300 LIFE OF CICERO. 

It is interesting to know the sort of house which Cicero 
felt to be suitable to his circumstances, for by that we may 
guess what his circumstances were. In making this pur- 
chase he is supposed to have abandoned the family house 
in which his father had lived, next door to the new mansion, 
and to have given it up to his brother. Hence we may argue 
that he had conceived himself to have risen in worldly 
circumstances. Nevertheless we are informed by himself 
in this letter to Sextius that he had to borrow money for 
the occasion, so much so, that, being a man now indebted, 
he might be supposed to be ripe for any conspiracy. Hence 
has come to us a story through Aulus Gellius, the compiler 
of anecdotes, to the effect that Cicero was fain to borrow 
this money from a client whose cause he undertook in 
requital for the favour so conferred. Aulus Gellius collected 
his stories two centuries afterwards for the amusement of his 
children, and has never been regarded as an authority in 
matters for which confirmation has been wanting. There is 
no allusion to such borrowing from a client made by any 
contemporary. In this letter to Sextius in which he speaks 
jokingly of his indebtedness, he declares that he has been 
able to borrow any amount he wanted at six per cent. twelve 
being the ordinary rate, and gives as a reason for this the 
position which he has achieved by his services to the 'State. 
Very much has been said of the story as though the pur- 
chaser of the house had done something of which he ought 

architect offered to build the house so as to hide its interior from the gaze 
of the world, Drusus desired the man so to construct it that all the world 
might see what he was doing. 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 301 

to have been ashamed; but this seems to have sprung 
entirely from the idea that a man who, in the midst of such 
wealth as prevailed at Rome, had practised so widely and 
so successfully the invaluable profession of an advocate, must 
surely have taken money for his services. He himself has 
asserted that he took none, and all the evidence that we 
have goes to show that he spoke the truth. Had he taken 
money even as a loan, we should have heard of it from 
nearer witnesses than Aulus Gellius, if, as Aulus Gellius 
tells us, it had become known at the time. But because 
he tells his friend that he has borrowed money for the 
purpose, he is supposed to have borrowed it in a disgraceful 
manner ! It will be found that all the stories most injurious 
to Cicero's reputation have been produced in the same 
manner. His own words have been misinterpreted, either 
the purport of them if spoken in earnest, 01 their bearing if 
spoken in joke, and then accusations have been founded 
on them. 1 

1 It may be worth while to give a translation of the anecdote as told by 
Aulus Gellius, ar.d to point out that the author's intention was to show what 
a clever fellow Cicero was. Cicero did defend P. Sulla this year ; but whence 
came the story of the money borrowed from Sulla we do not know. "It 
is a trick of rhetoric craftily to confess charges made, so as not to come 
within the reach of the law. So that if anything base be alleged which 
cannot be denied, you may turn it aside with a joke, and make it a matter 
of laughter rather than of disgrace ; as it is written that Cicero did, when 
with a drolling word he made little of a charge which he could not deny. 
For when he was anxious to buy a house on the Palatine Hill, and had not the 
ready money, he quietly borrowed from P. Sulla, who was then about to 
stand his trial, "sestertium viciens," twenty million sesterces. When that 
became known before the purchase was made, and it was objected to him that 
he had borrowed the money from a client, then Cicero, instigated by the 



302 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Another charge of dishonest practice was about this 
time made against Cicero without a grain of evidence ; 
though indeed the accusations so made, and insisted upon 
apparently from a feeling that Cicero cannot surely have 
been altogether clean when all others were so dirty, are 
too numerous to receive from each reader's judgment that 
indignant denial to which each is entitled. The biographer 
cannot but fear that when so much mud has been thrown 
some will stick, and therefore almost hesitates to tell of 
the mud believing that no stain of this kind has been in 
truth deserved. 

It seems that Antony, Cicero's colleague in the Consulship 
who became Proconsul in Macedonia, had undertaken to pay 
some money to Cicero. Why the money was to be paid 
we do riot know, but there are allusions in Cicero's letters 
to Atticus to one Teucris (a Trojan woman) and it seems 
that Antony was designated by the nickname. Teucris is 
very slow at paying his money, and Cicero is in want of 
it. But perhaps it will be as well not to push the matter 
He, Antony, is to be tried for provincial peculation, and 
Cicero declares that the case is so bad that he cannot de- 
fend his late colleague. Hence have arisen two different 



unexpected charge, denied the loan and denied also that he was going to buy 
the house. But when he had bought it and the fib was thrown in his teeth, 
he laughed heartily and asked whether men had so lost their senses as not to 
be aware that a prudent father of a family would deny an intended purchase 
rather than raise the price of the article against himself." Noctes Atticse, 
xii. 12. Aulus Gellius, though he tells us that the story was written does 
not tell us where he read it. 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 303 

suspicions ; one that Antony had agreed to make over to 
Cicero a share of the Macedonian plunder in requital of 
Cicero's courtesy in giving up the province which had 
been allotted to himself, the second, that Antony was to 
pay Cicero for defending him. As to the former Cicero 
himself alludes to such a report as being common in 
Macedonia and as having been used by Antony himself 
as an excuse for increased rapine. But this has been 
felt to be incredible, and has been allowed to fall to the 
ground because of the second accusation. But in support 
of that there is no word of evidence, 1 whereas the tenor of 
the story as told by Cicero himself is against it. Is it 
likely, would it be possible, that Cicero should have begun 
his letter to Atticus by complaining that he could not get 
from Antony money wanted for a peculiar purpose, it 
was wanted for his new house, and have gone on in the 
same letter to say that this might be as well after all, as 
he did not intend to perform the service for whiah the 
money was to be paid ? The reader will remember that 
the accusation is based solely on Cicero's own statement 
that Antony was negligent in paying to him money that 
had been promised. In all these accusations the evidence 
against Cicero such as it is, is brought exclusively from Cicero's 
own words. Cicero did afterwards defend this Antony, as 

1 I must say this, ' ' pace " Mr. Tyrrell, who in his note on the letter to 
Atticus lib. i. 12, attempts to show that some bargain for such professional 
fee had been made. Regarding Mr. Tyrrell as a critic always fair and almost 
always satisfactory, I am sorry to have to differ from him ; but it seems to 
me that he, too, has been carried away by the feeling that in defending 
a mail's character, it is best to give up some point. 



304 LIFE OF CICERO. 

we learn from his speech Pro Domo sua; but his change 
of purpose in that respect has nothing to do with the 
argument. 

We have two speeches extant made this year, one on 
,, co behalf of P. Sulla, nephew to the Dictator ; the 

.D-V/- O 

setat 45. Qj-^gj. f or Archias the Greek scholar and poet who 
had been Cicero's tutor and now claimed to be a citizen of 
Borne. I have already given an extract from this letter, as 
showing the charm of words with which Cicero could 
recommend the pursuit of literature to his hearers. The 
whole oration is a beautiful morsel of latinity in which, 
however, strength of argument is lacking. Cicero declares 
of Archias that he was so eminent in literature that if not 
a Eoman citizen, he ought to be made one. The result is 
not known, but the literary world believes that the citizenship 
was accorded to him. 1 

The speech on behalf of Sulla was more important, but 
still not of much importance. This Sulla, as may be 
remembered, had been chosen as Consul with Autronius, 
two years before the Consulship of Cicero, and he 



1 I have been amused at finding a discourse eloquent and most enthusi- 
astic, in praise of Cicero and especially of this oration, spoken by M. Gue- 
roult at the College of France in June 1815. The worst literary faults laid 
to the charge of Cicero, if committed by him, which M. Gueroult thinks 
to be doubtful, had been committed even by Voltaire and Racine ! The 
learned Frenchman, with whom I altogether sympathise, rises to an ecstasy 
of violent admiration, and this at the very moment in which Waterloo 
was being fought. But in truth the great doings of the world do not 
much affect individual life. We should play our whist at the clubs 
though the battle of Dorking were being fought. 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 305. 

had then after his election, been deposed for bribery, as 
had also Autronius. L. Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius 
Torquatus had been elected in their places. It has also been 
already explained that the two rejected Consuls had on this 
account joined Catiline in his first conspiracy. There can 
be no doubt that whether as Consuls, or as rejected Consuls 
and on that account conspirators, their purpose was to use 
their position as aristocrats for robbing the State. They 
were of the number of those to whom no other purpose 
was any longer possible. Then there came Catiline's second 
conspiracy, the conspiracy which Cicero had crushed, and 
there naturally rose the question whether from time to time 
this or the other noble Roman should not be accused of 
having joined it. Many noble Romans had no doubt joined 
besides those who had fallen fighting, or who had been 
executed in the dungeons. Accusations became very rife. 
One Vettius accused Caesar, the Praetor; but Caesar, with 
that potentiality which was peculiar to him, caused Vettius 
to be put into prison instead of going to prison himself. 
Many were convicted and banished ; among them Portius 
Leca, Vargunteius, Servius Sulla, the brother of him of whom 
we are now speaking, and Autronius his colleague. In the 
trial of these men Cicero took no part. He was specially 
invited by Autronius who was an old schoolfellow, to defend 
him, but he refused. Indeed, he gave evidence against 
Autronius at the trial. But this Publius Sulla he did defend, 
and defended successfully. He was joined in the case with 
Hortensius, and declared that as to the matter of the former 
conspiracy he left all that to his learned friend, who was 

VOL. I. X 



306 LIFE OF CICERO. 

concerned with political matters of that date. 1 He, Cicero, 
had known nothing about them. The part of the oration 
which most interests us is that in which he defends him- 
self from the accusations somewhat unwisely made against 
himself personally by young Torquatus, the son of him 
who had been raised to the Consulship in the place of P. 
Sulla. Torquatus had called him a foreigner because he 
was a " novus homo " and had come from the municipality 
of Arpinum, and had taunted him with being a king, 
because he had usurped authority over life and death in 
regard to Lentulus and the other conspirators. He answers 
this very finely, and does so without an ill-natured word to 
young Torquatus, whom, from respect to his father, he 
desires to spare. " Do not," he says, <f in future call me a 
foreigner, lest you be answered with severity, nor a king ; 
lest you be laughed at ; unless indeed you think it kinglike 
so to live as to be a slave not only to no man, but to no evil 
passion; unless you think it be kinglike to despise air lusts, 
to thirst for neither gold nor silver nor goods, to express 
yourself freely in the Senate, to think more of services due 
to the people than of favours won from them, to yield to 
none, and to stand firm against many. If this be kinglike 
then I confess that I am a king." Sulla was acquitted, but 
the impartial reader will not the less feel sure that he had 



1 Pro P. Sulla, iv. "Scis, me." .... "illorum expertem temporum et 
sermonum fuisse ; credo, quod nondum penitus in republics versabar, quod 
nonduin ad propositum mihi finem honoris perveneram." .... "Quisergo 
intererat vestris consiliis ? Omnes hi, quos vides huic adesse et in primis 
Q. Hortensius." 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 307 

been part and parcel with Catiline in the conspiracy. It is 
trusted that the impartial reader will also remember how 
many honest loyal gentlemen have in our own days under- 
taken the causes of those whom they have known to be rebels, 
and have saved those rebels by their ingenuity and eloquence. 

At the end of this year, B.C. 62, there occurred a fracas 
in Rome which was of itself but of little consequence to 
Rome, and would have been of none to Cicero but that 
circumstances grew out of it which created for him the 
bitterest enemy he had yet encountered, and led to his sorest 
trouble. This was the affair of Clodius and of the mysteries 
of the Bona Dea, and I should be disposed to say that it was 
the greatest misfortune of his life were it not that the 
wretched results which sprang from it would have been made 
to spring from some other source had that source not sufficed. 
I shall have to tell how it came to pass that Cicero was 
sent into exile by means of the misconduct of Clodius ; 
but I shall have to show also that the misconduct of Clodius 
was but the tool which was used by those who were desirous 
of ridding themselves of the presence of Cicero. 

This Clodius, a young man of noble family and of de- 
bauched manners, as was usual with young men of noble 
families, dressed himself up as a woman, and made his way 
in among the ladies as they were performing certain religious 
rites in honour of the Bona Dea, or goddess Cybele, a matron 
goddess so chaste in her manners that no male was admitted 
into her presence. It was specially understood that nothing 
appertaining to a man was to be seen on the occasion, not 
even the portrait of one ; and it may possibly have been the 

x 2 



308 LIFE OF CICERO. 

case that Clodius effected his entrance among the worshipping 
matrons on this occasion simply because his doing so was 
an outrage and therefore exciting. Another reason was 
alleged. The rites in question were annually held, now in 
the house of this matron and then of that, and during the 
occasion the very master of the house was excluded from his 
own premises. They were now being performed under the 
auspices of Pompeia, the wife of Julius Caesar, the daughter 
of one Quintus Pompeius, and it was alleged that Clodius 
came among the women worshippers for the sake of carrying 
on an intrigue with Caesar's wife. This was highly im- 
probable, as Mr. Forsyth has pointed out to us, and the idea 
was possibly used simply as an excuse to Caesar for divorcing 
a wife of whom .he was weary. At any rate when the scandal 
got abroad he did divorce Pompeia, alleging that it did not 
B c 61 su ^ ^ 8esar to have his wife suspected. The story 
setat46. -|-, ecame k nown through the cit}', and early in 
January Cicero wrote to Atticus, telling him the facts. 
" You have probably heard that Publius Clodius, the son 
of Appius, has bean taken dressed in a woman's clothes in 
the house of Caius Caesar, where sacrifice was being made 
for the people, and that he escaped by the aid of a female 
slave. You will be sorry to hear that it has given rise to 
a great scandal." 1 A few days afterwards Cicero speaks of 
it again to Atticus at greater length, and we learn that the 
matter had been taken up by the magistrates with the view 
of punishing Clodius. Cicero writes without any strong 

1 Ad Att. lib. i. 12. 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 309 

feeling of his own, explaining to his friend that he had been 
at first a very Lycurgus in the affair, but that he is now 
tamed down. 1 Then there is a third letter in which Cicero 
is indignant because certain men of whom he disapproves, 
the Consul Piso among the number, 2 are anxious to save this 
wicked young nobleman from the punishment due to him ; 
whereas others of whom he approves, Cato among the num- 
ber, are desirous of seeing justice done. But it was no affair 
special to Cicero. Shortly afterwards he writes again to 
Atticus as to the result of the trial, for a trial did take 
place, and explains to his friend how justice had failed. 
Atticus had asked him how it had come to pass that he, 
Cicero, had not exerted himself as he usually did. 3 This 
letter, though there is matter enough in it of a serious kind, 
yet jests with the Clodian affair so continually as to make 
us feel that he attributed no importance to it as regarded 
himself. He had exerted himself till Hortensius made a 
mistake as to the selection of the judges. After that he 
had himself given evidence. An attempt was made to prove 
an alibi, but Cicero came forward to swear that he had seen 
Clodius on the very day in question. There had too been 
an exchange of repartee in the Senate between himself and 
Clodius after the acquittal, of which he gives the details 
to his correspondent with considerable self-satisfaction. The 
passage does not enhance oiir idea of the dignity of the 
Senate, or of the power of Eoman raillery. It was known 

1 Ad Att. i. 13. 2 Ad Att. i. 14. 

3 Ad Att. i. 16. "Vis scire quomodo minus quam soleam prseliatus 
sum." 



310 LIFE OF CICERO. 

that Clodius had been saved by the wholesale bribery of a 
large number of the judges, There had been twenty-five for 
condemning against thirty-one for acquittal. 1 Cicero in the 
Catiline affair had used a phrase with frequency by which 
he boasted that he had " found out " this and " found out " 
that ; " comperisse omnia." Clodius in the discussion before 
the trial throws this in his teeth. " Comperisse omnia 
criminabatur." This gave rise to ill feeling, and hurt Cicero 
much worse than the dishonour done to the Bona Dea. As 
for that we may say that he and the Senate and the 
judges cared personally very little, although there was no 
doubt a feeling that it was wise to awe men's minds by 
the preservation of religious respect. Cicero had cared 
but little about the trial ; but as he had been able to 
give evidence he had appeared as a witness, and enmity 
sprang from the words which were spoken both on one side 
and on the other. CJodius was acquitted, which concerns 
us not at all, and concerns Eome very little ; but things 
had so come to pass at the trial that Cicero had been very 
bitter and that Clodius had become his enemy. When a 
man was wanted three years afterwards to take the lead 
in persecuting Cicero, Clodius was ready for the occasion. 
While the expediency of putting Clodius on his trial was 
being discussed Pompey had returned from the East, and 

1 You have bought a fine house," said Clodius. " There would be more 
in what you say if you could accuse me of buying judges," replied Cicero. 
"The judge would not trust you on your oath," said Clodius, referring 
to the alibi by which he had escaped in opposition to Cicero's oath. 
"Yes," replied Cicero, "twenty-five trusted me; but not one of the 
thirty-one would trust you without having his bribe paid beforehand." 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 311 

taken up his residence outside the city, because he was 
awaiting his triumph. The General, to whom it was given 
to march through the city with triumphal glory, was bound 
to make his first entrance after his victories with all his 
triumphal appendages, as though he was at that moment 
returning from the war with all his warlike spoils around 
him. The usage had obtained the strength of law, but 
the General was not on that account debarred from city 
employment during the interval. The city must be taken 
out to him instead of his coming into the city. Pompey was 
so great on his return from his Mithridatic victories that the 
Senate went out to sit with him in the suburbs, as he could 
not sit with it within the walls. We find him taking part in 
these Clodian discussions. Cicero at once writes of him to 
Athens with evident dissatisfaction. When questioned about 
Clodius Pompey had answered with the grand air of an 
aristocrat. Crassus on this occasion, between whom and 
Cicero there was never much friendship, took occasion to 
belaud the late great Consul on account of his Catiline 
successes. Pompey we are told did not bear this well 1 
Crassus had probably intended to produce some such effect 
Then Cicero had spoken in answer to the remarks of Crassus, 
very glibly no doubt, and had done his best to " show off " 
before Pompey his new listener. 2 More than six years had 
passed since Pompey could have heard him, and then Cicero's 
voice had not become potential in the Senate. Cicero had 

1 Ad. Alt. i. 14. '' Proxime Pompeium sedebam. Intellexi hominem 
moveri." 

1 Ibid., _" Quo modo frcirfpirfptvffdn-nv, novo auditor! Fompeio." 



312 LIFE OF CICERO. 

praised Pompey with all the eloquence in his power. " An- 
teponatur omnibus Pompeius," he had said in the last 
Catiline oration to the Senate ; and Pompey, though he had 
not heard the words spoken, knew very well what had been 
said. Such oratory was never lost upon those whom it most 
concerned the orator to make acquainted with it. But in 
return for all this praise, for that Manilian oration which 
had helped to send him to the East, for continual loyalty, 
Pompey had replied to Cicero with coldness. He would now 
let Pompey know what was his standing in Borne. " If 
ever," he says to Atticus, "I was strong with my grand 
rhythm, with my quick rhetorical passages, with en- 
thusiasm and with logic, I was so now. Oh, the noise 
that I made on the occasion ! You know what my voice 
can do. I need say no more about it, as surely you must 
have heard me, away there in Epirus." The reader, I trust, 
will have already a sufficiently vivid idea of Cicero's charac- 
ter to understand the mingling of triumph and badinage, 
with a spark of disappointment, which is here expressed. 
" This Pompey, though I have been so true to him, has not 
thought much of me, of me, the great Consul who saved 
Eome 1 He has now heard what even Crassus has been 
forced to say about me. He shall hear me too, me myself, 
and perhaps he will then know better." It was thus that 
Cicero's mind was at work while he was turning his loud 
periods. Pompey was sitting next to him, listening, by no 
means admiring his admirer as that admirer expected to be 
admired. Cicero had probably said to himself that they two 
together, Pompey and Cicero, might suffice to preserve the 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 313 

Republic. Pompey, not thinking much of the Republic, was 
probably telling himself that he wanted no brother near the 
throne. When of two men the first thinks himself equal 
to the second, the second will generally feel himself to be 
superior to the first. Pompey would have liked Cicero 
better if his periods had not been so round nor his voice 
so powerful. Not that Pompey was distinctly desirous of 
any throne. His position at the moment was peculiar. He 
had brought back his victorious army from the East to 
Brundisium and had then disbanded his legions. I will 
quote here the opening words from one of Mommsen's 
chapters. 1 " "When Pompeius, after having transacted the 
affairs committed to his charge, again turned his eyes towards 
home, he found for the second time the diadem at his 
feet." He says, further on, explaining why Pompey did not 
lift the diadem ; " The very peculiar temperament of Pom- 
peius naturally turned once more the scale. He was one of 
those men who are capable, it may be, of a crime, but not of 
insubordination." And again ; " While in the capital all 
was preparation for receiving the new monarch, news came 
that Pompeius, when barely landed at Brundisium, had 
broken up his legions and with a small escort had entered on 
his journey to the capital. If it is a piece of good fortune 

1 Mommsen, Book v. chap. vi. This probably has been taken from the 
statement of Paterculus, lib. ii. 40. " Quippe plerique non sine exer- 
citu venturum in urbem adfirmabant, et libertati public statuturum 
arbitrio suo modum. Quo magis hoc homines timuerant, eo gratior civilis 
tanti imperatoris reditus fuit." No doubt there was a dread among many 
of Pompey coming back as Sulla had come ; not from indications to bo 
found in the character of Pompey, but because Sulla had done so. 



314 LIFE OF CICERO. 

to gain a crown without trouble, fortune never did more for 
mortal than it did for Pompeius ; but on those who lack 
courage the gods lavish every favour and every gift in vain." 
I must say here that while I acknowledge the German 
historian's research and knowledge without any reserve, I 
cannot accept his deductions as to character. I do not 
believe that Pompey found any diadem at his feet, or 
thought of any diadem, nor according to my reading of 
Roman history, had Marius, or had Sulla ; nor did Cijesar. 
The first who thought of that perpetual rule, a rule to be 
perpetuated during the ruler's life and to be handed down to 
his successors, was Augustus. Marius, violent, self-seek- 
ing, and uncontrollable, had tumbled into supreme power, 
and had he not died, would have held it as long as he could, 
because it pleased his ambition for the moment. Sulla, with 
a purpose had seized it, yet seems never to have got beyond 
the old Roman idea of a temporary dictatorship. The old 
Roman horror of a king was present to these Romans even 
after they had become kings. Pompey no doubt liked to 
be first, and when he came ba,ck from the East thought that 
by his deeds he was first, easily first. Whether Consul 
year after year, as Marius had been, or Dictator as Sulla had 
been, or Imperator with a running command over all the 
Romans, it was his idea still to adhere to the forms of the 
Republic. Mommsen foreseeing, if an historian can be said 
to foresee the future from his standing-point in the past, 
that a master was to come for the Roman Empire, and giving 
all his sympathies to the Csesarean idea, despises Pompey 
because Pompey would not pick up the diadem. No such 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 315 

idea ever entered Pompey's head. After a while he " Sulla- 
turised," was desirous of copying Sulla, to use an ex- 
cellent word which Cicero coined. When he was successfully 
opposed by those whom he had thought inferior to himself, 
when he found that Caesar had got the better of him, and 
that a stronger body of Eomans went with Caesar than with 
him, then proscriptions, murder, confiscations, and the seizing 
of dictatorial power, presented themselves to his angry mind ; 
but of permanent despotic power there was, I think, no 
thought, nor, as far as I can read the records, had such an 
idea been fixed in Caesar's bosom. To carry on the old trade 
of Praetor, Consul, Proconsul, and Imperator, so as to get 
what he could of power and wealth and dignity in the scram- 
ble, was, I think, Caesar's purpose. The rest grew upon 
him. As Shakespeare sitting down to write a play that might 
serve his theatre composed some "Lear" or "Tempest," that 
has lived and will live for ever because of the genius which 
was unknown to himself; so did Caesar by his genius find his 
way to a power which he had not premeditated. A much 
longer time is necessary for eradicating an idea from men's 
minds than a fact from their practice. This should be 
proved to us by our own loyalty to the word " monarch," 
when nothing can be further removed from a monarchy than 
our own commonwealth. From those first breaches in. 
republican practice which the historian Florus dates back to 
the siege of Numantia, 1 133 B.C., down far into the reign 

1 Florus, lib. ii. xix. Having described to us the siege of Numantia he 
goes on, " Hactenus populus Romanus pulcher, egregius, pius, sanctus atque 
magnificus. Reliqua seculi, ut grandia a^ue, ita vel magis turbida et fceda. " 



3 16 LIFE OF CICERO. 

of Augustus, it took a century and a quarter to make the 
people understand that there was no longer a republican form 
of government, and to produce a leader who could himself 
see that there was room for a despot. 

Pompey had his triumph, but the same aristocratic airs 
which had annoyed Cicero had offended others. He was 
shorn of his honours. Only two days were allowed for his 
processions. He was irritated, jealous, and no doubt desirous 
of making his power felt ; but he thought of no diadem. 
Cgesar saw it all, and he thought of that conspiracy which 
we have since called the First Triumvirate. 

The two years to which this chapter has been given were 
B c. 62 & 61 uneven tful in Cicero's life, and produced but little 
aetat45&46- O f that stock of literature by which he has been 
made one of mankind's prime favourites. Two discourses 
were written and published, and probably spoken, which are 
now lost ; that namely to the people against Metellus, in 
which no doubt he put forth all that he had intended to say 
when Metellus stopped him from speaking at the expiration 
of his Consulship ; the second against Clodius and Curio in 
the Senate, in reference to the discreditible Clodian affair. 
The fragments which we have of this contain those asperities 
which he retailed afterwards in his letter to Atticus, and 
are not either instructive or amusing. But we learn from 
these fragments that Clodius was already preparing that 
scheme for entering the tribunate by an illegal repudiation 
of his own family rank, which he afterwards carried out to 
the great detriment of Cicero's happiness. Of the speeches 
extant, on behalf of Archias and P. Sulla, I have spoken 



CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP. 317 

already. We know of no others made during this period. 
We have one letter besides this to Atticus, addressed to 
Antony his former colleague, which, like many of his letters, 
was written solely for the sake of popularity. 

During these years he lived no doubt splendidly, as one of 
the great men of the greatest city in the world. He had his 
magnificent new mansion in Rome, and his various villas which 
were already becoming noted for their elegance and charms of 
upholstery and scenic beauty. Not only had he climbed to 
the top of official life himself, but had succeeded in taking 
his brother Quintus up with him. In the second of the two 
years, B.C. 61, Quintus had been sent out as Governor or Pro- 
praetor to Asia, having then nothing higher to reach than the 
Consulship, which however he never attained. This step 
in the life of Quintus has become famous by a letter which 
the elder brother wrote to him in the second year of his 
office, to which reference will be made in the next chapter. 

So far all things seemed to have gone well with Cicero. 
He was high in esteem and authority, powerful, rich, and 
with many people popular. But the student of his life now 
begins to see that troubles are enveloping him. He had 
risen too high not to encounter envy, and had been too loud 
in his own praise not to make those who envied him very 
bitter in their malice. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE TlilUMVIEATE. 

I KNOW of no great fact in history so impalpable, so 
shadowy, so unreal as the. First Triumvirate. Every school- 
B c 60 k7> almost every school-girl, knows that there was 
setat. 47. a -pirst Triumvirate, and that it was a political com- 
bination made by three great Romans, of the day, Julius 
Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Crassus the Rich for managing 
Rome among them. Beyond this they know little, because 
there is little to know. That it was a conspiracy against 
the ordained government of the day, as much so as that 
of Catiline, or Guy Faux, or Napoleon III., they do not 
know generally, because Caesar who, though the youngest of 
the three was the mainspring of it, rose by means of it to 
such a galaxy of glory, that all the steps by which he rose to 
it have been supposed to be magnificent and heroic. But of 
the method in which this Triumvirate was constructed who 
has an idea ? How was it first suggested, where, and by 
whom ? What was it that the conspirators combined to do ? 
There was no purpose of wholesale murder like that of 
Catiline for destroying the Senate and of Guy Faux for 
blowing up the House of Lords. There was no plot arranged 
for silencing a body of legislators, like that of Napoleon. In 
these scrambles that are going on every year for place and 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 319 

power, for provinces and plunder, let us help each other. If 
we can manage to stick fast by each other we can get all the 
power and nearly all the plunder. That, said with a wink by 
one of the Triumvirate, Caesar let us say, and assented to 
with a nod by Pompey and Crassus, was sufficient for the 
construction of such a conspiracy as that which I presume to 
have been hatched when the first Triumvirate was formed. 1 
Mommsen, who never speaks of a Triumvirate under that 
name, except in his index 2 where he has permitted the 
word to appear for the guidance of persons less well in- 
structed than himself, connects the transaction which we 
call the First Triumvirate with a former coalition, which he 
describes as having been made in B.C. 71, the year before 
the Consulship of Pompey and Crassus. With that we need 
not concern ourselves as we are dealing with the life of Cicero 
rather than with Eoman history, except to say that Caesar, 
who was the motive power of the second coalition, could 
have had no personal hand in that of 71. Though he had 
spent his early years in " harassing the aristocracy," as Dean 
Merivale tells us, he had not been of sufficient standing in 

1 We have not Pollio's poem on the conspiracy, but we have Horace's 
record of Pollio's poem ; 

" Motum ex Metello consuls civicnm, 
Bellique causas, et vitia, et modos, 
Liidumque Fortunse, gravesqne 
Principum amicitias, et arma 
Nondum expiatis uncta cruoribus, 
Periculosse plenum opus alese, 
Tractas, et incedis per ignes 

Suppositos cineri doloso." Odes, lib. ii. 1. 

2 The German index appeared very much after the original work ; as 
late as] 875. 



320 LIFE OF CICERO. 

men's minds to be put on a par with Pompey and Crassus. 
When this " First Triumvirate " was formed, as the modern 
world generally calls it, or the second coalition between the 
democracy and the great military leaders as Mommsen with 
greater, but not with perfect accuracy describes it, Caesar no 
doubt had at his fingers' ends the history of past years. "The 
idea naturally occurred," says Mommsen, " whether .... an 
alliance firmly based on mutual advantage might not be 
established between the democrats with their ally Crassus on 
the one side, and Pompeius and the great capitalists on the 
other. For Pompeius such a coalition was certainly a poli- 
tical suicide." l The democracy here means Caesar. Caesar 
during his whole life had been learning that no good could 
come to any one from an effete Senate, or from Kepublican 
forms which had lost all their salt. Democracy was in vogue 
with him, not, as I think, from any philanthropic desire for 
equality, not from any far-seeing view of fraternal citizenship 
under one great paternal lord; the study of politics had 
never then reached to that height ; but because it was 
necessary that some one, or perhaps some two or three, should 
prevail in the coming struggle, and because he felt himself to 
be more worthy than others. He had no conscience in the 
matter. Money was to him nothing. Another man's money 
was the same as his own, or better if he" could get hold of it. 
That doctrine taught by Cicero that men are " ad justitiam 
natos " must have been to him simply absurd. Blood was to 

1 Mommsen, Lib. v. chap. 6. I cannot admit that Mommsen is strictly 
accurate as Caesar had no real idea of democracy. He desired to be the 
Head of the Oligarchs, and as such to ingratiate himself with the people. 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 321 

him nothing. A friend was better than a foe, and a live man 
than a dead. Bloodthirstiness was a passion unknown to 
him; but that tenderness which with us creates a horror of 
blood was equally unknown. Pleasure was sweet to him ; but 
he was man enough to feel that a life of pleasure was con- 
temptible. To pillage a city, to pilfer his all from a rich man, 
to debauch a friend's wife, to give over a multitude of women 
and children to slaughter, was as easy to him as to forgive 
an enemy. But ^nothing rankled with him and he could 
forgive an enemy. Of courage he had that better sort which 
can appreciate and calculate danger, and then act as though 
there were none. Nothing was wrong to him but what was 
injudicious. He could flatter, cajole, lie, deceive, and rob ; 
nay, would think it folly not to do so if to do so were expe- 
dient. 1 In this coalition he appears as supporting and sup- 
ported by the people. Therefore Mommsen speaks of him 
as the " democrat." Crassus is called the ally of the demo- 
crats. It will be enough for us here to koow that Crassus 
had achieved his position in the Senate by his enormous 
wealth, and that it was because of his wealth which was 
essential to Caesar, that he was admitted into the league. 

1 For the character of Caesar generally I would refer readers to Sue- 
tonius, whose life of the great man is to my thinking more graphic than 
any that has been written since. For his anecdotes there is little or 
no evidence. His facts are not all historical. His knowledge was 
very much less accurate than that of modern writers who have had 
the benefit of research and comparison. But there was enough of his- 
tory, of biography, and of tradition to enable him to form a true idea 
of the man. He himself as a narrator was neither specially friendly nor 
specially hostile. He has told what was believed at the time, and he has 
drawn a character that agrees perfectly with all that we have learned since. 

VOL. I. Y 



322 LIFE OF CICERO. 

By means of his wealth he bad risen to power and had 
conquered and killed Spartacus, of the honour and glory 
of which Pompey robbed him. Then he had been made 
Consul. When Caesar had .gone as Propraetor to Spain 
Crassus had found the money. Now Caesar had come 
back and was hand and glove with Crassus. When the 
division of the spoil came, some years afterwards, the 
spoil won by the Triumvirate, when Caesar had half per- 
fected his grand achievements in Gaul, and Crassus had as 
yet been only a second time Consul, he got himself to be sent 
into Syria, that by conquering the Parthians he might make 
himself equal to Caesar. We know how he and his son 
perished there, each of them probably avoiding the last ex- 
tremity of misery to a Roman, that of falling into the hands 
of a barbarian enemy, by destroying himself. Than the life 
of Crassus nothing could be more contemptible, than 
the death nothing more pitiable. " For Pompeius," says 
Mommsen, " such a coalition was certainly a political suicide." 
As events turned out it became so, because Caesar was the 
stronger man of the two ; but it is intelligible that at that 
time Pompey should have felt that he could not lord it over 
the Senate as he wished to do without aid from the demo- 
cratic party. He had no well-defined views, but he wished 
to be the first man in Eome. He regarded himself as still 
greatly superior to Caesar, who as yet had been no more than 
Praetor and at this time was being balked of his triumph 
because he could not at one and the same moment be in 
the city, as candidate for the Consulship, and out of the 
city waiting for his triumph. Pompey had triumphed three 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 323 

times, had been Consul at an unnaturally early age with 
abnormal honours, had been victorious east and west, and 
was called " Magnus." He did not as yet fear to be over- 
shadowed by Caesar. 1 Cicero was his bugbear. 

Mommsen I believe to be right in eschewing the word 
"Triumvirate." I know no mention of it by any Roman 
writer as applied to this conspiracy, though Tacitus, Suetonius, 
and Florus call by that name the later coalition of Octavius, 
Antony and Lepidus. The Langhornes in translating 
Plutarch's life of Crassus speak of the Triumvirate; out 
Plutarch himself says that Csesar combined " an impregnable 
stronghold" by joining the three men. 2 Paterculus and 
Suetonius 3 explain very clearly the nature of the compact 
but do not use the term. There was nothing in the con- 
spiracy entitling it to any official appellation, though as there 
were three leading conspirators that which has been used has 
been so far appropriate. 

1 By no one has the character and object of the Triumvirate been so well 
described as by Lucan, who, bombastic as he is, still manages to bring 
home to the reader the ideas as to persons and events which he wishes to 
convey. I have ventured to give in an Appendix, E., the passages referred 
to, with such a translation in prose as I have been able to produce. It will 
be found at the end of this volume. 

2 Plutarch ; Crassus. " Kal avvtaT-rifffv etc TWV rpi3v I<TXVV &fj.axov," 

3 Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii. 44. "Hoc igitur consule, inter eum et Cn. 
Pompeium et M. Crassum inita potentise societas, quse urbi orbique ten-arum, 
nee minus diverso quoque tempore ipsis exitiabilis fuit." Suetonius, Julius 
Cfesar, xix., " Societatem cum utroque iniit." Officers called Triumviri were 
quite common, as were quinqueviri and decemviri. Livy speaks of a 
" Triumviratus," or rather two such offices exercised by one man, ix. 46. 
"We remember too that wretch whom Horace gibbeted, Epod. iv. "Sectus 
flagellis hie triumviralibus." But the word though in common use was not 
applied to this conspiracy. 

Y 2 



324 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Cicero was the bugbear to them all. That he might have 

been one of them, if ready to share the plunder and the 

power, no reader of the history of the time can doubt. Had 

BC 60 he so chosen he might again have been a "real 

setat 47. p 0wer j n the State ; " but to become so in the way 

proposed to him it was necessary that he should join others 

in a conspiracy against the Republic. 

I do not wish it to be supposed .that Cicero received the 
overtures made to him with horror. Conspiracies were too 
common for horror; and these conspirators were all our 
Cicero's friends in one sense, though in another they might 
be his opponents. We may imagine that first Crassus had 
nothing to do with the matter, and that Pompey would fain 
have stood aloof in his jealousy. But Caesar knew that it 
was well to have Cicero, if Cicero was to be had. It was 
not only his eloquence which was marvellously powerful, 
or his energy which had been shown to be indomitable. 
There was his character, surpassed by that of no Eoman 
living, if only in giving them the use of his character, he 
could be got to disregard the honour and the justice and 
the patriotism on which his character had been founded. 
How valuable may character be made, if it can be employed 



under such conditions ! To be believed because of your 
truth, and yet to lie; to be trusted for your honesty, and 
yet to cheat ; to have credit for patriotism, arid yet to sell 
your country ! The temptations to do this are rarely put 
before a man plainly, in all their naked ugliness. They 
certainly were not so presented to Cicero by Caesar and 
his associates. The bait was held out to him, as it is daily 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 323 

to others, in a form not repellent, with words fitted to deceive 
and powerful almost to persuade. Give us the advantage of 
your character, and then by your means we shall be able to 
save our country. Though our line of action may not be 
strictly constitutional, if you will look into it you will see 
that it is expedient. What other course is there ? How else 
shall any wreck of the Republic be preserved ? Would you 
be another Cato, useless and impractical ? Join us and save 
Home to some purpose. We can understand that in such way 
was the lure held out to Cicero, as it has been to many a 
politician since. But when the politician takes the office 
offered to him, and the pay, though it be but that of a Lord 
of the Treasury, he must vote with his party. 

That Cicero doubted much whether he would or would 
not at this time throw in his lot with Caesar and Pompey 
is certain. To be of real use, not to be impractical as was 
Cato, to save his country and rise honestly in power and 
glory, not to be too straitlaced, not over-scrupulous, giving 
and taking a little, so that he might work to good purpose 
with others in harness ; that was his idea of duty as a 
Roman. To serve in accord with Pompey was the first 
dream of his political life, and now Pompey was in accord 
with Csesar. It was natural that he should doubt, natural 
that he should express his doubts. Who should receive them 
but Atticus, that ' alter ego ' ? Cicero doubted whether he 
should cling to Pompey, as he did in every phase of his 
political life, till Pompey had perished at the mouth of the 
Nile. But at last he saw his way clear to honesty, as 
I think he always did. He tells his friend that Csesar had 



326 LIFE OF CICERO. 

sent his confidential messenger, Balbus, to sound him. The 
present question is whether he shall resist a certain agrarian 
law of which he does not approve, but which is supported 
by both Pompey and Caesar, or retire from the contest and 
enjoy himself at his country villas, or boldly stay at Borne 
and oppose the law. Caesar assures him that if he will come 
over to them Caesar will be always true to him and Pompey, 
and will do his best to bring Crassus into the same frame 
of mind. Then he reckons up all the good things which 
would accrue to him.' "Closest friendship with Pompey, 
with Ceesar also should he wish it ; the making up of all 
quarrels with his enemies ; popularity with the people ; ease 
for his old age which was coming on him. But that con- 
clusion moves me to which I came in my third Book." 1 
Then he repeats the lines given in the note below, which he 
had written, probably this very year, in a poem composed 
in honour of his own Consulship. The lines are not in them- 
selves grand, but the spirit of them is magnificent. " Stick 
to the good cause which in your early youth you chose for 
yourself, and be true to the party you have made your own." 
" Should I doubt when the muse herself has so written," he 
says, alluding to the name of Calliope, given to this third 

1 Ad. Att. lib. ii. 3. "Is affirmabat, ilium omnibus in rebus meo et 
Pompeii consilio usurum, daturumque operam, ut cum Pompeio Crassum con- 
jungeret. Hie sunt hsec. Conjunctiomihi summa cum Pompeio; si placet 
etiam cum Csesare ; reditus in gratiam cum inimicis, pax cum multitudine 
seneclutis otium. Sed me Ka.ra.K\els mea ilia commovet, quse est in libro iii. 

' Interea cursus, quos prima a parte juventae 
Quosque adeo consul virtute, animoque petisti, 
Hos retine, atque uuge famam laudesque bonorum." 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 327 

book of his. Then he adds a line of Homer, very excellent 
for the occasion. 1 "No augury for the future can be better 
for you than that which bids you serve your country," 
"But," he says, "we will talk of all that when you come 
to me for the holidays. Your bath shall be ready for you 
your sister and mother shall be of the party." And so the 
doubts are settled. 

Now came on the question of the Tribuneship of Clodius 
B c 60 in reference to which I will quote a passage /out 
aetat47. O f j^i^^Jeton because the phrase which he uses 
exactly explains the purposes of Csesar and Pompey. 
" Clodius, who had been contriving all this while how to 
revenge himself on Cicero, began now to give an opening 
to the scheme, which he had formed for that purpose. His 
project was, to get himself chosen Tribune, and in that 
office to drive him out of the city, by the publication of 
a law, which, by some stratagem or other, he hoped to 
obtrude on the people. But as all Patricians were incapable 
of the Tribunate, by its original institution, so his first step 
was to make himself a Plebeian by the pretence of an 
adoption into a Plebeian house, which could not yet -be done 
without the suffrage of the people. This case was wholly 
new, and contrary to all the forms ; wanting every condition, 
and serving none of the ends, which were required in regular 
adoptions ; so that, on the first proposal, it seemed too extra- 
vagant to be treated seriously, and would soon have been 
hissed off with scorn, had it not been concerted and privately 



1 Homer, Iliad, lib. xii. 243. " Els ol<oi/bs &pi<rros a^vvfff&ai irepl 



328 LIFE OF CICERO. 

supported by persons of much more weight than Clodius. 
Csesar was at the bottom of it^ and Pompey secretly favoured 
it ; not that they intended to ruin Cicero, but to keep him 
only under the lash ; and if they could not draw him into 
their measures, to make him at least sit quiet and let Clodius 
loose upon him." * 

This, no doubt, was the intention of the political leaders 
in Eome at this conjunction of affairs. It had been found 
impossible to draw Cicero gently into the net, so that he 
should become one of them. If he would live quietly at 
his Antian or Tusculan villa, amidst his books and writings, 
he should be treated with all respect. He should be borne 
with even though he talked so much of his own Consulate. 
But if he would interfere with the politics of the day, and 
would not come into the net, then he must be dealt with. 
Csesar seems to have respected Cicero always, and even to 
have liked him. But he was not minded to put up with 
a "friend" in Eome who from day to day abused all his 
projects. In defending Antony, the Macedonian Proconsul 
who was condemned, Cicero made some unpleasant remarks 
on the then condition of things. Csesar, we are told, when 
he heard of this, on the very spur of the moment, caused 
Clodius to be accepted as a plebeian. 

In all this we are reminded of the absolute truth of 
Mommsen's verdict on Eome which I have already quoted 
more than once. " On the Eoman oligarchy of this period 
no judgment can be passed save one of inexorable and 

1 Middleton's Life of Cicero, vol. i. p. 291. 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 329 

remorseless condemnation." How had it come to pass that 
Csesar had the power of suddenly causing an edict to become 
law, whether for good or for evil ? Cicero's description of 
what took place is as follows. 1 "About the sixth hour of 
the day, when I was defending my colleague Antony in 
court, I took occasion to complain of certain things which 
were being done in the Eepublic, and which I thought to be 
injurious to my poor client. Some dishonest persons carried 
my words to men in power," meaning Csesar and Pompey, 
" not indeed my own words, but words very different from 
mine. At the ninth hour on that very same day, you, 
Clodius, were accepted as a Plebeian." Csesar having been 
given to understand that Cicero had been making himself 
disagreeable, was determined not to put up with it. Suetonius 
tells the same story with admirable simplicity. Of Suetonius 
it must be said that if he had no sympathy -for a patriot such 
as Cicero, neither had he any desire to represent in rosy 
colours the despotism of a Csesar. He tells his stories simply 
as he has heard them. " Cicero," says Suetonius, 2 " having at 
some trial complained of the state of the times, Csesar, on the 
very same day, at the ninth hour, passed Clodius over from 
the patrician to the plebeian rank in accordance with his own 
desire." How did it come to pass that Csesar who, though 
Consul at the time, had no recognised power of that nature, 



1 Pro Domo Sua, xvi. This was an oration, as the reader will soon learn 
more at length, in which the orator pleaded for the restoration of his town 
mansion after his return from exile. It has however been doubted whether 
the speech as we have it was ever made by Cicero. 

2 Suetonius. Julius Csesar, xx. 



330 LIFE OF CICERO. 

was efficacious for any such work as this? Because the 
Republic had come to the condition which the German 
historian has described. The conspiracy between Caesar 
and his subordinates had not been made for nothing. 

The reader will require to know why Clodius should have 
desired degradation, and how it came to pass that this 
degradation should have been fatal to Cicero. The story has 
been partly told in the passage from Middleton. A patrician 
in accordance with the constitution could not be a Tribune 
of the people. From the commencement of the Tribunate 
that office had been reserved for the Plebeians. But a 
Tribune had a power of introducing laws which exceeded 
that of any Senator or any other official. " They had acquired 
the right," we are told in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and 
Roman Antiquities, " of proposing to the comitia tributa, or 
to the Senate, measures on nearly all the important affairs 
of the State." And as matters stood at this time no one 
Tribune could " veto " or put an arbitrary stop to a proposition 
from another. When such proposition was made, it was 
simply for the people to decide by their votes whether it 
should or should not be law. The present object was to have 
a proposition made and carried suddenly, in reference to 
Cicero, which should have at any rate the effect of stopping 
his mouth. This could be best done by a Tribune of the 
people. No other adequate Tribune could be found, no 
Plebeian so incensed against Cicero as to be willing to do this, 
possessing at the same time power enough to be elected. 
Therefore it was that Clodius was so anxious to be degraded. 

No Patrician could become a Tribune of the people ; but 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 331 

a Patrician might be adopted by a Plebeian, and the adopted 
child would take the rank of his father, would in fact for 
all legal purposes be the same as a son. For doing this in 
any case a law had to be passed, or in other words the assent 
of the people must be obtained and registered. But many 
conditions .were necessary. The father intending to adopt 
must have no living son of his own, and must be past tho 
time of life at which he might naturally hope to have one, 
and the adopted son must be of a fitting age to personate a 
son, at any rate must be younger than the father ; nothing 
must be done injurious to either family ; there must be no 
trick in it, no looking after other result than that plainly 
intended. All these conditions were broken. The pretended 
father, JFonteius, had a family of his own, and was younger 
than Clodius. The great Claudian family was desecrate J, and 
there was no one so ignorant as not to know that the purpose 
intended was that of entering the Tribunate by a fraud. It 
was required by the general law that the Sacred College 
should report as to the proper observances of the prescribed 
regulations, but no priest was ever consulted. Yet Clodius 
was adopted, made a Plebeian, and in the course of the year 
elected as Tribune. 

In reading all this the reader is mainly struck by the 
wonderful admixture of lawlessness and law-abiding stead- 
fastness. If Caesar, who was already becoming a tyrant in 
his Consulship, chose to make use of this means of silencing 
Cicero, why not force Clodius into the Tribunate without 
so false and degrading a ceremony ? But if, as was no 
doubt the case, he was not yet strong enough to ignore the 



332 LIFE OF CICERO. 

old popular feelings on the subject, how was it that he was 
able to laugh in his sleeve at the laws, and to come forth 
at a moment's notice and cause the people to vote, legally 
or illegally, just as he pleased ? It requires no conjuror to 
tell us the reason. The outside hulls and husks remain, 
when the rich fruit has gone. It was in seeing this, and yet 
not quite believing that it must be so, that the agony of 
Cicero's life consisted. There could have been no hope for 
freedom, no hope for the Eepublic, when Koine had been 
governed as it was during the Consulship of Caesar; but 
Cicero could still hope, though faintly, and still buoy himself 
up with remembrances of his own year of office. 

In carrying on the story of the newly adopted child to his 
election as Tribune I have gone beyond the time of my 
narrative ; so that the reader may understand the cause and 
nature and effect of the anger which Clodius entertained 
for Cicero. This originated in the bitter words spoken as 
to the profanation of the Bona Dea, and led to the means for 
achieving Cicero's exile and other untoward passages of his 
life. In the year 60 B.C. when Metellus Celer and Afranius 
were Consuls, Clodius was tried for insulting the Bona Dea, 
and the since so-called Triumvirate was instituted. It has 
already been shown that Cicero, not without many doubts 
rejected the first offers which were made to him to join the 
forces that were so united. He seems to have passed the 
greater portion of this year in Borne. One letter only was 
written from the country, to Atticus, from his Tusculan 
villa, and that is of no special moment. He spent his time 
in the city, still engaged in the politics of the day, as to 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 333 

which, though he dreaded the coming together of Csesar and 
Pompey and Orassus, those "graves principum amicitias" 
which were to become so detrimental to all who were con- 
cerned in them, he foresaw as yet but little of the evil 
which was to fall upon his own head. He was by no means 
idle as to literature, though we have but little of what he 
wrote, and do not regret what we have lost. He composed a 
memoir of his Consulate in Greek, which he sent to Atticus 
with an allusion to his own use of the foreign language 
intended to show that he is quite at ease in that matter. 
Atticus had sent -him a memoir, also written in Greek, on 
the same subject, and the two packets had crossed each other 
on the road. He candidly tells Atticus that his attempt 
seems to be "horridula atque incompta," rough and un- 
polished, whereas Posidonius, the great Greek critic of 
Rhodes who had been invited by him, Cicero, to read the 
memoir and then himself to treat the same subject, had 
replied that he was altogether debarred from such an attempt 
by the excellence of his correspondent's performance. 1 He 
also wrote three books of a poem on his Consulate, and sent 
them to Atticus ; of which we have a fragment of 75 lines 
quoted by himself, 2 and four or five other lines including 
that unfortunate verse handed down by Quintilian, ' : 
fortunatum natam me consule Romam;" unless indeed it be 
spurious as is suggested by that excellent critic and whole- 
hearted friend of the orator's, M. Gueroult. Previous to these 

1 Ad. Att. lib. ii. 1. " Quid quseris ? " says Cicero. " Conturbavi 
Graecam nationem." I have put all Greece iuto a flutter. 

2 De Divinatione, lib. i. 



334 LIFE OF CICERO. 

he had produced, in hexameters also, a translation of the 
Prognostics of Aratus. This is the second part of a poem on 
the heavenly bodies, the first part, the Phsenomena, having 
been turned into Latin verse by him when he was eighteen. 
Of the Prognostics we have only a few lines preserved by 
Priscian, and a passage repeated by the author, also in his 
" De Divinatione." I think that Cicero was capable of pro- 
ducing a poem quite worthy of preservation ; but in the 
work of this year the subjects chosen were not alluring. 
Among his epistles of the year there is one which might 
BC 60 ^ ^self have sufficed to bring down his name to 
setat 47. posterity. This is a long letter full of advice to 
his brother Quintus, who had gone out in the previous year 
to govern the province of Asia as Proprietor. We may say 
that good advice could never have been more wanted and 
that better advice could not have been given. It has been 
suggested that it was written as a companion to that treatise 
on the duties of a candidate which Quintus composed for his 
brother's service when standing for his Consulship. But I can- 

M 

not admit the analogy. The composition attributed to Quintus 
contained lessons of advice equally suitable to any candidate, 
sprung from the people, striving to rise to high honours in 
the State. This letter is adapted not only to the special 
position of Quintus, but to the peculiarities of his character. 
And its strength lies in this, that while the one brother 
praises the other, justly praises him as I believe for many 
virtues so as to make the receipt of it acceptable, it points 
out faults, faults which will become fatal, if not amended, 
in language which is not only strong but unanswerable. 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 335 

The style of this letter is undoubtedly very different from 
that of Cicero's letters generally, so as to suggest to the 
reader that it must have been composed expressly for pub- 
lication whereas the daily correspondence is written " currente 
calamo," with no other than the immediate idea of amusing, 
instructing or perhaps comforting the correspondent. Hence 
has come the comparison between this and the treatise " De 
Petitione Consulatus." I think that the gravity of the 
occasion rather than any regard for posterity produced the 
change of style. Cicero found it to be essential to induce 
his brother to remain at his post, not to throw up his govern- 
ment in disgust, and so to bear himself that he should not 
make himself absolutely odious to his own staff and to other 
Komans around him. For Quintus Cicero, though he had 
been proud and arrogant and ill-tempered, had not made 
himself notorious by the ordinary Roman propensity to 
plunder his province. "What is it that is required of 
you as a Governor ? " l asks Cicero. " That men should not 
be frightened by your journeys hither and thither, that they 
should not be eaten up by your extravagance, that they 
should not be disturbed by your coming among them ; that 
there should be joy at your approach ; when each city should 



1 Ad. Quin. Fratrem, lib. i. 1. " Non itineribus tuis perterreri homines ? 
non sumptu exhauriri ? non adventu commoveri ? Esse, quocumqueveneri.s, 
et publice et privatim, maximam luetitiam ; quum urbs custodem non ty- 
rannum ; domus hospitem non expilatorem, recipisse videatur ? Bis autem in 
rebus jam te usus ipse profecto erudivit nequaquam satis esse, ipsuni hasce 
habere virtutis, sed esse circumspiciendum diligentur, ut in hac custodia pro- 
vincise non te unum, sed omnes ministros imperii tui, sociis, et civibus, et 
reipublicse prastare videare." 



336 LIFE OF CICERO. 

think that its guardian angel, not a cruel master had come 
upon it ; when each house should feel that it entertained 
not a robber, but a friend. Practice has made you perfect 
in this. But it is not enough that you should exercise those 
good offices yourself but that you should take care that 
every one of those who come with you should seem to do 
his best for the inhabitants of the Province, for the citizen 
of Eome, and for the Eepublic." I wish that I could give 
the letter entire, both in English that all readers might know 
how grand are the precepts taught, and in Latin that they 
who understand the language might appreciate the beauty 
of the words ; but I do not dare to fill my pages at such 
length. A little further on he gives his idea of the duty 
of all those who have power over others, even- over the 
dumb animals. 1 " To me it seems that the- duty of those 
in authority over others consists in making those who are 
under them as happy as the nature of things will allow. 
Every one knows that you have acted on this principle 
since you first went to Asia." This I fear, must be taken 
as flattery intended to gild the pill which come.s afterwards. 
"This is not only his duty who has under him allies and 
citizens, but is also that of the man who has slaves under 
his control and even dumb cattle, that he should study 
the welfare of all over whom he stands in the position of 

1 Ibid., "Ac mihi quidem videntur hue omnia esse referenda iis qui 
pnesnnt aliis ; ut ii, qui erunt eorum in imperio sint quam beatissimi ; quod 
tibi et esse antiquissimum et ab initio fuisse, ut primum Asiam attigisti, 
constante faina atque omnium sermone celebratum est. Est autem non modo 
pjus, qui sociis et civibus, sed etiam ejus qui servis, qui mutis pecudibus 
prassit, eorum quibus praesit commodis utilitatique servire. " 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 337 

master ! " Let the reader look into this and ask himself 
what precepts of Christianity have ever surpassed it. 

Then he points out that which he describes as the one 
great difficulty in the career of a Eoman Provincial Governor. 1 
The collectors of taxes, or " publicani " were of the equestrian 
order. This business of farming the taxes had been their rich 
privilege for at any rate more than a century, and, as Cicero 
says further on in his letter, it was impossible not to know 
with what hardship the Greek allies would be treated by 
them when so many stories were current of their cruelty 
even in Italy. Were Quintus to take a part against these 
tax-gatherers he would make them hostile not only to the 
Republic but to himself also, and also to his brother 
Marcus, for they were of the equestrian order and specially 
connected with these " publicani " by family ties. He implies 
as he goes on that it will be easier to teach the Greeks to be 
submissive than the tax-gatherers to be moderate. After all 
where would the Greeks of Asia be if they had no Roman 
master to afford them protection ? He leaves the matter in 
the hands of his brother with advice that he should do the 
best he can on one side and on the other. If possible let 
the greed of the " publicani " be restrained ; but let the 
ally be taught to understand that there may be usage in 
the world worse even than Roman taxation. It would be 
hardly worth our while to allude to this part of Cicero's 
advice did it not give an insight into the mode in which 
Eome taxed her subject people. 

1 " Hsec est una in toto imperio tuo difficultas." 
VOL. I. Z 



338 LIFE OF CICERO. 

After this lie commences that portion of the letter for 
the sake of which we cannot but believe that the whole 
was written. " There is one thing," he says, " which I 
will never cease to din into your ears because I could 
not endure to think that amidst the praises which are 
lavished on you there should be any matter in which you 
should be found wanting. All who come to us here," 
all who come to Eome from Asia that is, " when they 
tell us of your honesty and goodness of heart, tell us 
also that you fail in temper. It is a vice which in the 
daily affairs of private life betokens a weak and unmanly 
spirit ; but there can be nothing so poor as the exhibition 
of the littleness of nature in those who have risen to the 
dignity of command." He will not, he goes on to say, 
trouble his brother with repeating all that the wise men 
have said on the subject of anger. He is sure that 
Quintus is well acquainted with all that. But is it 
not a pity, when all men say that nothing could be 
pleasanter than Quintus Cicero when in a good humour, 
the same Quintus should allow himself to be so provoked 
that his want of kindly manners should be regretted by all 
around him ? " I cannot assert," he goes on to say, " that 
when nature has produced a certain condition of mind and 
that years as they run on have strengthened it, a man can 
change all that and pluck out from his very self the habits 
that have grown within him ; yet I must tell you that if 
you cannot eschew this evil altogether, if you cannot protect 
yourself against the feeling of anger, yet you should prepare 
yourself to be ready for it when it comes, so that when 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 339. 

your very soul within you is hot with it, your tongue at 
any rate may be restrained." Then towards the end of 
the letter there is a fraternal exhortation which is surely 
very fine. " Since chance has thrown into my way the 
duties of official life in Borne, and into yours that of adminis- 
trating provincial government, if I, in the performance of 
my work have been second to none, do you see that you 
in yours may be equally efficient." How grand from an 
elder brother to a younger ! " And remember this, that 
you and I have not to strive after some excellence still 
unattained, but have to be on our watch to guard that 
which has been already won. If I should find myself in 
anything divided from you, I should desire no further 
advance in life. Unless your deeds and your words go 
on all fours with mine I should feel that I had achieved 
nothing by all the work and all the dangers which you 
and I have encountered together." The brother at last was 
found to be a poor envious, ill-conditioned creature, in- 
tellectually gifted and capable of borrowing something from 
his brother's nobler nature ; but when struggles came, and 
political feuds, and the need of looking about to see on 
which side safety lay, ready to sacrifice his brother for the 
sake of safety. But, up to this time, Marcus was prepared 
to believe all good of Quintus ; and having made for himself 
and for the family a great name, was desirous of sharing it 
with his brother ; and, as we shall afterwards see, with his 
brother's son, and with his own. In this he failed. He 
lived to know that he had failed as regarded his brother 
and his nephew. It was not however, added to his misery 

z 2 



340 LIFE OF CICERO. 

to live to learn how little his son was to do to maintain 
the honour of his family. 

I find a note scribbled by myself some years ago in a 
volume in which I had read this epistle, " Probably the 
most beautiful letter ever written." Reading it again sub- 
sequently I added another note, " The language altogether 
different from that of his ordinary letters." I do not dissent 
now either from the enthusiastic praise or the more careful 
criticism. The letter was from the man's heart, true, 
affectionate, and full of anxious brotherly duty ; but written 
in studied language, befitting as Cicero thought, the need 
and the dignity of the occasion. 

The year following was that of Caesar's first Consulship 
B c 59 wn i c h ne held in conjunction with Bibulus, a man 
aetat 48. W j 10 wag altogether opposed to him in thought, in 
character, and in action. So hostile were these two great 
officers to each other that the one attempted to undo what- 
ever the other did. Bibulus was elected by bribery, on 
behalf of the Senate, in order that he might be a counterpoise 
to Caesar. But Caesar now was not only Caesar. He was 
Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus united, with all their depen- 
dants, all their clients, all their greedy hangers-on To 
give this compact something of the strength of family union 
Pompey who was now nearly fifty years of age took in 
marriage Caesar's daughter Julia, who was a quarter of a 
century his junior. But Pompey was a man who could 
endear himself to women and the opinion seems to be general 
that had not Julia died in childbirth the friendship between 
the men would have been more lasting. But for Caesar's 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 341 

purposes the duration of this year and the next was enough. 
Bibulus was a laughing-stock, the mere shadow of a Consul, 
when opposed to such an enemy. He tried to use all the 
old forms of the Eepublic with the object of stopping Caesar 
in his career ; but Caesar only ridiculed him ; and Pompey, 
though we can imagine that he did not laugh much, did 
as Caesar would have him. Bibulus was an Augur and 
observed the heavens when political manoeuvres were going 
on which he wished to stop. This was the old Eoman 
system for using religion as a drag upon progressive 
movements. No work of state could be carried on if the 
heavens were declared to be unpropitious ; and an Augur 
could always say that the heavens were unpropitious if he 
pleased. This was the recognised constitutional mode of 
obstruction, and was quite in accord with the feelings of 
the people. Pompey alone, or Crassus with him, would 
certainly have submitted to an Augur. But Caesar was 
above Augurs. Whatever he chose to have carried, he 
carried, with what approach he could to constitutional 
usage, but with whatever departure from constitutional 
usage he found to be necessary. 

What was the condition of the people of Rome at the 
time it is difficult to learn from the conflicting statements 
of historians. That Cicero had till lately been popular we 
know. We are told that Bibulus was popular when he 
opposed Caesar. Of personal popularity up to this time 
I doubt whether Caesar had achieved much. Yet we learn 
that when Bibulus with Cato and Lucullus endeavoured to 
carry out their constitutional threats, they were dragged 



342 LIFE OF CICERO. 

and knocked about and one of them nearly killed. Of the 
illegality of Caesar's proceedings there can be no doubt. 
"The tribunician veto was interposed; Ceesar contented 
himself with disregarding it. 1 " This is quoted from the 
German historian, who intends to leave an impression that 
Caesar was great and wise in all that he did ; and who tells 
us also of the "obstinate weak creature Bibulus," and of 
" the dogmatical fool Cato." I doubt whether there was 
anything of true popular ferment, or that there was any 
commotion except that which was made by the "roughs" 
who had attached themselves for pay to Caesar or to Pompey, 
or to Crassus, or as it might be to Bibulus and the other 
leaders. The violence did not amount to more than "nearly" 
killing this man or the other. Some Eoman street fights were 
no doubt more bloody, as for instance that in which seven 
years afterwards Clodius was slaughtered by Milo, but the 
blood was made to flow, not by the people, but by hired 
bravos. The Eoman citizens of the day were, I think, 
very quiescent. Neither pride nor misery stirred them 
much. Caesar, perceiving this, was aware that he might 
disregard Bibulus and his auguries so long as he had a 
band of ruffians around him sufficient for the purposes of 
the hour. It was in order that he might thus prevail that 
the coalition had been made with Pompey and Crassus. 
His colleague Bibulus, seeing how matters were going, 
retired to his own house and there went through a farce 
of Consular enactments. Caesar carried all his purposes, 

1 Mommsen, Book v. ca. 6. 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 343 

and the people were content to laugh, dividing him into 
two personages, and talking of Julius and Caesar as the 
two Consuls of the year. It was in this way that he pro- 
cured to be allotted to him by the people his irregular 
command in Gaul. He was to be Proconsul not for one 
year, with perhaps a prolongation for two or three, but 
for an established period of five. He was to have the 
great province of Cisalpine Gaul, that is to say the whole 
of what we now call Italy from the foot of the Alps down 
to a line running from sea to sea just north of Florence. 
To this Transalpine Gaul was afterwards added. The 
province so named, possessed at the time by the Romans, 
was called " Narbonensis," a country comparatively insig- 
nificant, running from the Alps to the Pyrenees along the 
Mediterranean. The Gaul, or Gallia of which Caesar speaks 
when in the opening words of his Commentary he tells us 
that it was divided into three parts, was altogether beyond 
the Eomau province which was assigned to him. Caesar 
when he undertook his government can hardly have dreamed 
of subjecting to Roman rule the vast territories which were 
then known as Gallia, beyond the frontiers of the Empire 
and which we now call France. 

But he caused himself to be supported by an enormous 
army. There were stationed three legions on the Italian side 
of the Alps, and one on the other. These were all to be 
under his command for five years certain ; and amounted to 
a force of not less than 30,000 men. "As no troops could 
constitutionally be stationed in Italy proper the commander 
of the legions of Northern Italy and Gaul," says Mommsen, 



344 LIFE OF CICERO. 

" dominated at the same time Italy and Eome for the next five 

years; and he who was master for five years, was master for life." 1 

Such was the condition of Eome during the second year 

D n KQ of the Triumvirate in which Csesar was Consul and 

JJ*\J* UOt 

setat 48. p re p are( j the way for the powers which he afterwards 
exercised. Cicero would not come to his call ; and therefore, 
as we are told, Clodius was let loose upon him. As he 
would not come to Caesar's call it was necessary that he 
should be suppressed, and Clodius, notwithstanding all 
constitutional difficulties, nay, impossibilities, was made 
Tribune of the people. Things had now so far advanced 
with a Csesar that a Cicero who would not come to his call 
must be disposed of after some fashion. 

Till we have thought much of it, often of it, till we have 
looked thoroughly into it, we find ourselves tempted to 
marvel at Cicero's blindness. Surely a man so gifted must 
have known enough of the state of Eome to have been 
aware that there was no room left for one honest, patriotic, 
constitutional politician ? Was it not plain to him that if, 
"natus ad justitiam," he could not bring himself to serve 
with those who were intent on discarding the Eepublic, he 
had better retire among his books, his busts, and his literary 
luxuries, and leave the government of the country to those 
who understood its people ? And we are the more prone 
to say and to think all this because the man himself con- 
tinually said it, and continually thought it. In one of the 
letters written early in the year 2 to Atticus from his villa 

1 Homiusen, vol. v. ca. vi. 

2 Ad Att. lib. ii. 7. " Atque htec, siu volim existimes, non me abs te (tare? 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 345 

at Antium he declares very plainly how it is with him ; and 
this too in a letter written in good- humour, not in a despond- 
ent frame of mind, in which he is able pleasantly to ridicule 
his enemy Clodius, who it seems had expressed a wish to 
go on an embassy to Tigranes, King of Armenia. " Do not 
think," he says, " that I am complaining of all this, because 
I myself am desirous of being engaged in public affairs. 
Even while it was mine to sit at the helm I was tired of the 
work ; but now, when I am in truth driven out of the ship, 
when the rudder has, not been thrown down but seized out of 
my hands, how should I take a pleasure in looking from the 
shore at the wrecks which these other pilots have made ? " 
But the study of human nature tells us, and all experience, 
that men are unable to fathom their own desires and fail to 
govern themselves by the wisdom which is at their fingers' 
ends. The retiring Prime Minister cannot but hanker after 
the seals and the ribands and the titles of office, even though 
his soul be able to rise above considerations of emolument. 
And there will creep into a man's mind an idea that though 
reform of abuses from other sources may be impossible, that 
if he were there once more, the evil could at least be miti- 
gated, might possibly be cured. So it was during this 
period of his life with Cicero. He did believe that political 
justice exercised by himself, with such assistance as his 
eloquence would obtain for it, might be efficacious for pre- 
serving the Eepublic, in spite of Caesar, and. of Pompey, and 
of Crassus. He did not yet believe that these men would 

rt> irpa.KTiKbv quserere, quod gestiat animus aliquid agere in republica. Jam 
prideru gubernare me tsedebat, etiam quum licebat." 



346 LIFE OF CICERO. 

consent to such an outrage as his banishment. It must 
have been incredible to him .that Pompey should assent to 
it. When the blow came, it crushed him, for the time. 
But he retricked his beams and struggled on to the end, as 
we shall see if we follow his life to the close. 

Such was the intended purpose of the degradation of 
Clodius. This however was not at once declared. It was 
said that Clodius as Tribune intended rather to oppose Caesar 
than to assist him. He at any rate chose that Cicero should 
so believe and sent Curio, a young man to whom Cicero was 
attached, to visit the orator at his villa at Antiuin and to 
declare these friendly purposes. According to the story told 
by Cicero, 1 Clodius was prepared to oppose the Triumvirate. 
And the other young men of Rome, the feunesse dorte of which 
both Curio and Clodius were members, were said to be equally 
hostile to Caesar, Pompey and Crassus, whose doings in oppo- 
sition to the constitution were already evident enough ; so 
that it suited Cicero to believe that the rising aristocracy of 
Eonie would oppose them. But the aristocracy of Eome, 
whether old or young, cared for nothing but its fish-ponds 
and its amusements. 

Cicero spent the earlier part of the year out of Eome, 
among his various villas, at Tusculanum, at Antium, and 
at Formiae. The purport of all his letters at this period is 
the same, to complain of the condition of the Eepublic, 

1 Ad Att. lib. ii. 8. " Scito Curionem adolescentem venisse ad me salu- 
tatum. Valde ejus scrmo de Publio cum tuis litteris congrut-bat, ipse vero 
mirandum in modum Reges odisse superbos. Peraeque narrabat incensam 
ease juventu tern, neque ferre hsec posse." The " reges superbos" were Caesar 
and Pompey. 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 347 

and especially of the treachery of his friend Pompey. 
Though there be much of despondency in his tone, there is 
enough also of high spirit to make us feel that his literary 
aspirations are not out of place, though mingled with his 
political wailing. The time will soon come when his trust 
even in literature will fail him for a while. 

' Early in the year he declares that he would like to accept 
a mission to Egypt, offered to him by Caesar and Pompey, 
partly in order that he might for a while be quit of Eome, 
and partly that Eomans might feel how ill they could do 
without him. He then uses for the first time, as far as I 
am aware, a line from the Iliad, 1 which is repeated by him 
again and again, in part or in whole, to signify the restraint 
which is placed on him, by his own high character among 
his fellow-citizens. " I would go to Egypt on this pleasant 
excursion, but that I fear what the men of Troy, and the Trojan 
women, with their wide-sweeping robes, would say of me." 
And what, he asks, would the men of our party, "the 
optimates " say, and what would Cato say, whose opinion is 
more to me than that of them all? And how would 
history tell the story in future ages ? But he would like 
to go to Egypt, and he will wait and see. Then after various 
questions to Atticus, comes that great one as to the augurship 
of which so much has been made by Cicero's enemies, 
"quo quidem uno ego ab istis capi possiin." A few lines N 

1 Ad Att. lib. ii. 5. A5e'o/acu TpoHas Kal Tpwa'Sas eA./ce<rjiT67rA.ot>s. II. vi. 
442. " I fear what Mrs. Grundy would say of me" is Mr. Tyrrell's homely 
version. Cicero's mind soared I think higher when he brought the words of 
Hector to his service than does the ordinary reference to our old familiar 
critic. 



348 LIFE OF CICERO. 

above he had been speaking of another lure, that of the 
mission to Egypt. He discusses that with his friend, and 
then goes on in his half joking phrase, ' But this would 
have been the real thing to catch me." Nothing caught 
him. He was steadfast all through, accepting no offer of 
place from the conspirators by which his integrity or his 
honour could be soiled. That it was so was well known 
to history in the time of Quintilian, whose testimony as 
to the "repudiatus vigintiviratus," his refusal of a place 
among the twenty commissioners, has been already quoted. 1 
And yet biographers have written of him as of one willing to 
sell his honour, his opinions, and the commonwealth, for a 
" pitiful bribe," not that he did do so, not that he attempted 
to do it, but because in a half-joking letter to the friend 
of his bosom he tells his friend which way his tastes lay ! 2 

He had been thinking of writing a book on geography, 
and consulted Atticus on the subject; but in one of his 
letters he tells his friend that he had abandoned the idea. 
The subject was too dull, and if he took one side in a 
dispute that was existing, he would be sure to fall under 
the lash of the critics on the other. He is enjoying his 
leisure at Antium, and thinks it a much better place than 
Eome. If the weather will not let him catch fish, at any 
rate he can count the waves. In all these letters Cicero 
asks questions about his money and his private affairs, 
about the mending of a wall perhaps, and adds something 
about his wife or daughter or son. He is going from 

1 Quint, xii. 1. - Enc. Britarinica on Cicero. 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 349 

Antiuui to Formise, but must return to Antium by a 
certain date because Tullia wants to see the games. 

Then again he alludes to Clodius. Pompey had made 
a compact with Clodius, so at least Cicero had heard, 
that he, Clodius, if elected for the Tribunate, would do 
nothing to injure Cicero. The assurance of such a compact 
had no doubt been spread about, for the quieting of Cicero ; 
but no such compact had been intended to be kept, unless 
Cicero would be amenable, would take some of the good 
things offered to him, or at any rate, hold his peace. But 
Cicero affects to hope that no such agreement may be kept. 
He is always nicknaming Pompey, who during his Eastern 
campaign had taken Jerusalem, and who now parodies the 
Africanus, the Asiaticus, and the Macedonicus of the Scipios 
and Metelluses. " If that Hierosolymarian candidate for popu- 
larity does not keep his word with me, I shall be delighted. 
If that be his return for my speeches on his behalf," the 
Anteponatur omnibus Pompeius for instance, *'I will play 
him such a turn of another kind that he shall remember it." 1 

He begins to know what the "Triumvirate" is doing 
with the Eepublic, but has not yet brought himself to 
suspect the blow that is to fall on himself. "They are 
going along very gaily," he says, "arid do not make as 
much noise as one would have expected." 2 If Cato had 
been more on the alert, things would not have gone so 

1 Ad Att. lib. ii. 9. 

2 Ibid. "Festive, mihi.crede, et minore sonitu, quam putaram, orbis hie 
in republica est conversus." "Orbis hie," this round body of three, is the 
Triumvirate. 



350 LIFE OF CICERO. 

quickly, but the dishonesty of others who have allowed 
all the laws to be ignored,, has been worse than Cato. 
If we used to feel that the Senate took too much on 
itself, what shall we say when that power has been 
transferred, not to the people, but to three utterly un- 
scrupulous men ? " They can make whom they will Consuls, 
whom they will Tribunes so that they may hide the very 
goitre of Vatinius under a priest's robe." For himself 
Cicero says, he will be contented to remain with his books 
if only Clodius will allow him. If not he will defend 
himself. 1 As for his country, he has done more for his 
country than has even been desired of him; and he thinks 
it to be better to leave the helm in the hands of pilots 
however incompetent, than, himself to steer, when passengers 
are so thankless. Then we find that he robs poor Tullia 
of her promised pleasure at the games because it will be 
beneath his dignity to appear at them. He is always very 
anxious for his friend's letters, depending on them for news 
and for amusement. "My messenger will return at once," 
he says in one. " Therefore though ypu are coining yourself 
very soon, send me a heavy letter, full, not only of news, 
but of your own ideas." 2 In another, "Cicero the little 
sends greeting," he says in Greek, " to Titus the Athenian,"- 
that is to Titus Pomponius Atticus. The Greek letters 

1 We cannot but think of the threat Horace made ; Sat. lib. ii. 1 : 

"At ilk 

Qui me commorit, melius uon tangcre ! clamo, 
Flebit, et insignia tota cantabitur urbe. " 

2 Ad Att. lib. ii. 11. "Da pcnderosam aliquant ejistolam." 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 351 

were probably traced by the child at his father's knee as 
Cicero held the pen or the stylus. In another letter he 
declares that there, at Formise, Pompey's name of Magnus 
is no more esteemed than that of Dives belonging to 
Crassus. In the next he calls Pompey Sampsiceraums. 
We learn from Josephus that there was a lady afterwards 
in the East in the time of Vitellius, who was daughter of 
Sampsigeramus, King of the Emesi. It might probably be a 
royal family name. 1 In choosing the absurd title he is again 
laughing at his party leader. Pompey had probably boasted 
of his doings with the Sampsiceramus of the day and the 
priests of Jerusalem. " When this Sampsiceramus of ours finds 
how ill he is spoken of, he will rush headlong into revolution." 
He complains that he can do nothing at Formise because 
of the visitors. No English poet was ever so interviewed 
by American admirers ! They came at all hours, in numbers 
sufficient to fill a temple, let alone a gentleman's house. 
How can he write anything requiring leisure in such a 
condition as this ? Nevertheless he will attempt something. 
He goes on criticising all that is done in Rome, especially 
what is done by Pompey, who no doubt was vacillating 
sadly between Caesar to whom he was bound, and Bibulus, 
the other Consul to whom he ought to have been bound, as 
being naturally on the aristocratic side,, He cannot for a 
moment keep his pen from public matters; nor, on the 
other hand can he refrain from declaring that he will 
apply himself wholly, undividedly, to his literature. 

1 Josephus, lib. xviii. ca. 5. 



352 LIFE OF CICERO. 

" Therefore, oh ray Titus, let me settle down to these glorious 
occupations, and return to that, which, if I had been wise 
I never should have left." A day or two afterwards, 
writing from the same place, he asks what Arabarches is 
saying of him. Arabarches is another name for Pompey ; 
this Arabian chieftain. 

In the early summer of this year Cicero returned to 
Eome, probably in time to see Atticus, who was then 
about to leave the city for his estates in Epirus. We 
have a letter written by him to his friend on the journey, 
telling us that Caesar had made him two distinct offers, 
evidently with the view of getting rid of him, but in 
such a manner as would be gratifying to Cicero himself. 2 
Caesar asks him to go with him to Gaul as his lieutenant* 
or, if that will not suit him, to accept a "free legation for 
the sake of paying a vow." This latter was a kind of job 
by which Komaii Senators got themselves sent forth on 
their private travels with all the appanages of a Senator 
travelling on public business. We have his argument as 
to both. Elsewhere he objects to a "Libera legatio " as being 
a job. 3 Here he only points out that though it enforce 
his absence from Rome at a time disagreeable to him, just 
when his brother Quintus would return, it would not 
give him the protection which he needs. Though he were 

1 Ad Att, lib. ii. 16. 

2 Ad Att. lib, ii. 18. "A Csesare valde liberaliter invitor in legati- 
onem illam, sibi ut sim legatus ; atque etiam libera legatio voti causa 
datur." 

8 De Legibus, lib. iii. ca. viii. " Jam illud apertum prefecto est nihil esse 
turpius, quam quenquam legari nisi republica causa." 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 353 

travelling about the world as a Senator on some pretended 
embassy, he would still be open to the attacks of Clodius. He 
would necessarily be absent, or he would not be in enjoyment 
of his privilege ; but by his very absence he would find his 
position weakened. Whereas, as Caesar's appointed lieu- 
tenant, he need not leave the city at once, and in that 
position he would be quite safe against all that Clodius 
or other enemies could do to him. 1 No indictment could 
be made against a Eoman while he was in the employment, 
of the State. It must be remembered too on judging of 
these overtures that both the one and the other, and in- 
deed all the offers then made to him, were deemed to 
be highly honourable as Rome then existed. "The free 
legation," the"Libera legatio voti causa," had no reference 
to parties. It was a job no doubt, and, in the hands of 
the ordinary Eoman aristocrat, likely to be very onerous to 
the provincials among whom the privileged Senator might 
travel ; but it entailed no party adhesion. In this case 
it was intended only to guarantee the absence of a man 
who might be troublesome in Eome. The other was the 
offer of genuine work in which politics were not at all 
concerned. Such a position was accepted by Quintus, our 
Cicero's brother, and in performance of the duties which 
fell to him he incurred terrible danger, having been nearly 
destroyed by the Gauls in his winter quarters among the 
Nervii. Labienus, who was Caesar's right-hand man in 
Gaul, was of the same politics as Cicero, so much so 

1 It may be seen from this how anxious Caesar was to secure his silence, 
and yet how determined not to screen him unless he could secure his silence. 

VOL. I. A A 



354 LIFE OF CICERO. 

that when Caesar rebelled against the Eepublic Labienus, 
true to the Republic, would no longer fight on Caesar's side. 
It was open to Cicero, without disloyalty, to accept the 
offer made to him. But with an insight into what was 
coming of which he himself was hardly conscious, he could 
not bring himself to accept offers which in themselves were 
alluring but which would seem in future times to have 
implied on his part an assent to the breaking up of the 
Republic. AlStOfnat Tpeoa? KOI TpwaSas eX/eecrtTreTrXof?. 
What will be said of me in history by my citizens if I now 
do simply that which may best suit my own happiness ? Had 
he done so Pliny and the others would not have spoken of 
him as they have spoken, and it would not have been worth 
the while of modern lovers of Cassarism to write books 
against the one patriot of his age. 

During the remainder of this year, B.C. 59, Cicero was 
at Rome and seems gradually to have become aware that 
a personal attack was to be made upon him. At the close 
of a long and remarkable letter written to his brother Quintus 
in November, he explains the state of his own mind, showing 
us, who have now before us the future which was hidden 
from him, how greatly mistaken he was as to the results 
which were to be expected. He had been telling his brother 
how nearly Cato had been murdered for calling Pompey, 
in public, a Dictator. Then he goes on to describe his 
own condition. 1 "You may see from this what is the 
state of the Republic. As far as I am concerned it seems 

1 Ad Qnintiim, lib. i. 2. 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 355 

that friends will not be wanting to defend me. They offer 
themselves in a wonderful way, and promise assistance. 
I feel great hope and still greater spirit ; hope which tells 
me that we shall be victors in the struggle ; spirit which 
bids me fear no casualty in the present state of public affairs. 1 
But the matter stands in this way. If he," that is Clodius, 
" should indict me in Court, all Italy would come to my 
defence so that I should be acquitted with honour. Should 
he attack me with open violence, I should have, I think, 
not only my own party but the world at large to stand 
by me. All men promise me their friends, their clients, 
their freedmen, their slaves, and even their money. Our 
old body of aristocrats," Cato, Bibulus, and the makers of 
fishponds generally, "are wonderfully warm in my cause. 
If any of these have heretofore been remiss, now they join 
our party from sheer hatred of these Kings," the Triumvirs. 
" Pompey promises everything, and so does Csesar, whom 
I only trust so far as I can see them." Even the Triumvirs 
promise him that he will be safe ; but his belief in 
Pompey's honesty is all but gone. " The coming Tribunes 
are my friends. The Consuls of next year promise well." 
He was wofully mistaken. " We have excellent Praetors, 
citizens alive to their duty. Domitius, Nigidius, Memmius, 
and Lentulus are specially trustworthy. The others are good 
men. You may therefore pluck up your courage and be 
confident." From this we perceive that he had already 
formed the idea that he might perhaps be required to fight 

1 Of this last sentence I have taken a translation given by Mr. Tyrrell, who 
has introduced a special reading of the original which the sense seems to justify. 

A A 2 



356 LIFE OF CICERO. 

for his position as a Eoman citizen. And it seems also 
that he understood the cause of the coming conflict. The 
intention was that he should be driven out of Eome by 
personal enmity. Nothing is said in any of these letters 
of the excuse to be used, though he knew well what that 
excuse was to be. He was to be charged by the patrician 
Tribune with having put Roman citizens to death in oppo- 
sition to the law. But there arises at this time no ques- 
tion whether he had or had not been justified in what he, 
as Consul, had done to Lentulus and the others. Would 
Clodius be able to rouse a mob against him ? And, if so, 
would Caesar assist Clodius, or would Pompey, who still 
loomed to his eyes as the larger of the two men ? He 
had ever been the friend of Pompey, and Pompey had 
promised him all manner of assistance. But he knew 
already that Pompey would turn upon him. That Eome 
should turn upon him, Eome which he had preserved 
from the torches of Catiline's conspirators, that he could 
not bring himself to believe ! 

We must not pass over this long letter to Quintus without 
observing that through it all the evil condition of the younger 
brother's mind becomes apparent. The severity of his ad- 
ministration had given offence. His punishments had been 
cruel. His letters had been rash, and his language violent. 
In short we gather from the brother's testimony that 
Quintus Cicero was very ill fitted to be the civil governor 
of a province. 

The only work which we have from Cicero belonging to 
this year, except his letters, is the speech, or part of 



THE TRIUMVIRATE. 357 

the speech, he made for Lucius Valerius Flaccus. Flaccus 
had been Prsetor when Cicero was Consul, and had done 
good service in the eyes of his superior officers in the matter 
of the Catiline conspiracy. He had then gone to Asia as 
Governor, and, after the Eoman manner had fleeced the 
Province. That this was so there is no doubt. After his 
return he was accused, was defended by Cicero, and was 
acquitted. Macrobius tells us that Cicero by the happiness 
of a bon-mot brought the accused off safely, though he 
was manifestly guilty. He adds also that Cicero took care 
not to allow the joke to appear in the published edition 
of his speech. 1 There are parts of the speech which have 
been preserved and are sufficiently amusing even to us. 
He is very hard upon the Greeks of Asia, the class from 
which the witnesses against Flaccus were taken. We know 
here in England that a spaniel, a wife, and a walnut-tree 
may be beaten with advantage. Cicero says that in Asia 
there is a proverb that a Phrygian may be improved in 
the same way. " Fiat experimentum in corpore vili." It 
is declared through Asia that you should take a Carian 
for your experiment. The " last of the Mysians," is the 
well known Asiatic term for the lowest type of humanity. 
Look through all the comedies ; you will find the leading 
slave is a Lydian. Then he turns to these poor Asiatics 
and asks them whether any one can be expected to think 

1 Macrobius, Saturnalia, lib. ii. ca. i. We are told that Cicero had been 
called the consular buffoon. " And I," says Macrobius, " if it would not be 
too long, could relate how by his jokes he has brought off the most guilty 
criminals." Then he tells the story of Lucius Flaccus. 



358 LIFE OF CICERO. 

well of them, when such is their own testimony of them- 
selves ! He attacks the Jew and speaks of the Jewish re- 
ligion as a superstition worthy in itself of no consideration. 
Pompey had spared the gold in the temple of Jerusalem, 
because he thought it wise to respect the religious prejudices 
of the people. But the gods themselves had shown by 
subjecting the Jews to the Romans how little the gods had 
regarded these idolatrous worshippers ! Such were the 
arguments used; and they prevailed with the judges, 
or jury, we should rather call them, to whom they were 
addressed. 



CHAPTER Xil. 

HIS EXILE. 

WE now come to that period of Cicero's life in which, 
by common consent of all who have hitherto written of 
him he is supposed to have shown himself as least worthy 
of his high name. Middleton, who certainly loved his 
hero's memory and was always anxious to do him justice, 
condemns him. " It cannot be denied that in this calamity 
of his exile he did not behave himself with that firmness 
which might reasonably be expected from one who had 
borne so glorious a part in the Eepublic." Morabin, the 
French biographer, speaks of the wailings of his grief, of 
its injustice and its follies. "Ciceron etait trop plein de 
son malheur pour donner entree a de nouvelles esperances," 
he says. " II avait supporte ce malheur avec peu de 
courage," says another Frenchman, M. Du Eozoir, in 
introducing us to the speeches which Cicero made on 
his return. Dean Merivale declares that "he marred 
the grace of the concession in the eyes of posterity," 
alluding to the concession made to popular feeling by his 
voluntary departure from Rome, as will hereafter be de- 
scribed, "by the unmanly lamentations with which he 



360 LIFE OF CICERO. 

accompanied it." Mommsen, with a want of insight into 
character wonderful in an author who has so closely studied 
the history of the period, speaks of his exile as a punish- 
ment inflicted on a "man notoriously timid and belonging 
to the class of political weathercocks." " We now come," 
says Mr. Forsyth, " to the most melancholy period of Cicero's 
life, melancholy not so much from its nature and the extent 
of the misfortunes which overtook him, as from the abject 
prostration of mind into which he was thrown." Mr. Froude, 
as might be expected, uses language stronger than that of 
others and tells us that "he retired to Macedonia to pour 
out his sorrows and his resentments in lamentations un- 
worthy of a woman." We have to admit that modern 
historians and biographers have been united in accusing 
Cicero of want of manliness during his exile. I propose, 
not indeed to wash the blackamoor white, but to show, 
if I can. that he was as white as others might be expected 
to have been in similar circumstances. 

We are, I think, somewhat proud of the courage shown 
by public men of our country who have suffered either 
justly or injustly under the laws. Our annals are bloody 
and many such have had to meet their death. They have 
done so generally with becoming manliness. Even though 
they may have been rebels against the powers of the day, 
their memories have been made green because they have 
fallen like brave men. Sir Thomas More, who was no 
rebel, died well and crowned a good life by his manner 
of leaving it. Thomas Cromwell submitted to .the axe 
without a complaint. Lady Jane Grey, when on the 



HIS EXILE. 361 

scaffold, yielded nothing in manliness to the others. Cran- 
mer and the martyr bishops perished nobly. The Earl of 
Essex, and Ealeigh, and Stratford, and Stratford's master 
showed no fear when the fatal moment came. In reading 
the fate of each we sympathise with the victim because 
of a certain dignity at the moment of death. But there 
is, I think, no crisis of life in which it is so easy for a 
man to carry himself honourably as that in which he has 
to leave it. "Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus." 
No doubting now can be of avail. No moment is left for 
the display of conduct beyond this, which requires only 
decorum and a free use of the pulses to become in some 
degree glorious. The wretch from the lowest dregs of 
the people can achieve it with a halter round his neck. 
Cicero had that moment also to face; and, when it came, 
he was as brave as the best Englishmen of them all. But 
of those I have named no one had an Atticus to whom 
it had been the privilege of his life to open his very soul 
in language so charming as to make it worth posterity's 
while to read it, to study it, to sift it, and to criticise it. 
"VVolsey made many plaints in his misery, but they have 
reached us in such forms of grace that they do not disparage 
him ; but then he too had no Atticus. Shaftesbury and 
Bolingbroke were dismissed ministers and doomed to live 
in exile, the latter for many years, and felt no doubt 
strongly their removal from the glare of public life to 
obscurity. We hear no complaint from them which can 
justify some future critic in saying that their wails were 
unworthy of a woman. But neither of them were capable 



362 LIFE OF CICERO. 

of telling an Atticus the thoughts of his mind as they 
rose. What other public man ever had an Atticus to 
whom in the sorrows which the ingratitude of friends had 
brought upon him he could disclose every throb of his heart ? 
I think that we are often at a loss, in our efforts at 
appreciation of character and in the expressions of our 
opinion respecting it, to realise the meaning of courage 
and manliness. That sententious Swedish Queen, one of 
whose foolish maxims I have quoted, has said that Cicero 
though a coward was capable of great actions, because she 
did not know what a coward was. To doubt, to tremble 
with anxiety, to vacillate hither and thither between this 
course and the other as to which may be the better, to 
complain within one's own breast that this or that thing 
has been an injustice, to hesitate within oneself not quite 
knowing which way honour may require us to go, to be 
indignant even at fancied wrongs, to rise in wrath against 
another and then, before the hour has passed, to turn that 
wrath against oneself, that is not to be a coward. To 
know what duty requires, and then to be deterred by fear 
of results, that is to be a coward. But the man of many 
scruples may be the greatest hero of them all. Let the 
law of things be declared clearly, so that the doubting mind 
shall no longer doubt, so that scruples may be laid at rest, 
so that the sense of justice may be satisfied, and he of whom 
I speak shall be ready to meet the world in arms against 
him. i There are men, very useful in their way, who shall 
never doubt at all, but shall be ready, as the bull is ready, 
to encounter any obstacles that there may be before them. 



HIS EXILE. 363 

I will not say but that for the coarse purposes of the world, 
they may not be the most efficacious. But I will not admit 
that they are therefore the bravest. The bull who has no 
imagination to tell him what the obstacle may do to him, 
is not brave. He is brave who, fully understanding the 
potentiality of the obstacle, shall, for a sufficient purpose, 
move against it. 

This Cicero always did. He braved the murderous anger 
of Sulla when as a young man he thought it well to stop 
the greed of Sulla's minions. He trusted himself amidst the 
dangers prepared for him when it was necessary that with 
extraordinary speed he should get together the evidence 
needed for the prosecution of Verres. He was firm against 
all that Catiline attempted for his destruction, and had 
courage enough for the responsibility when he thought it 
expedient to doom the friends of Catiline to death. In 
defending Milo, whether the cause were good or bad, he 
did not blench. 1 He joined the Eepublican army in Macedonia 
though he distrusted Pompey and his companions. When 
he thought that there was a hope for the Eepublic, he 
sprang at Antony with all the courage of a tigress protecting 
her young. And when all had failed and was rotten around 
him, when the Eepublic had so fallen that he knew it to 
be gone, then he was able to give his neck to the 
swordsman with all the apparent indifference of life which 
was displayed by those countrymen of our own whom I 
have named. 

1 See the evidence of Asconius on this point, as to which Cicero's conduct 
has been much mistaken. We shall come to Milo's trial before long. 



364 LIFE OF CICERO. 

But why did he write so piteously when he was driven 
into exile ? Why at any rate did he turn upon his chosen 
friend and scold him, as though that friend had not done 
enough for friendship? Why did he talk of suicide as 
though by that he might find the easiest way of escape ? 

I hold it to be natural that a man should wail to himself 
under a sense, not simply of misfortune, but of misfortune 
coming to him from the injustice of others, and specially 
from the ingratitude of friends. Afflictions which come 
to us from natural causes, such as sickness and physical 
pain, or from some chance such as the loss of our money 
by the breaking of a bank, an heroic man will bear without 
even inward complainings. But a sense of wrong done 
to him by friends will stir him, not by the misery inflicted 
but because of the injustice. And that which he says to 
himself he will say to his wife, if his wife be to him a 
second self, or to his friend if he have one so dear to him. 
The testimony by which the writers I have named have 
been led to treat Cicero so severely has been found in 
the letters which he wrote during his exile. And of these 
letters, all but one, were addressed either to Atticus or to 
his wife or to his brother. 1 Twenty-seven of them were 
to Atticus. Before he accepted a voluntary exile, as the 
best solution of the difficulty in which he was placed, 
for it was voluntary at first as will be seen, he applied 
to the Consul Piso for aid, and for the same purpose visited 
Pompey. So far he was a suppliant, but this he did in 

1 The statement is made by Mr. Tyrrell in his biographical introduction 
to the Epistles. 



HIS EXILE. 365 

conformity with Roman usage. In asking favour of a 
man in power there was held to be no disgrace, even though 
the favour asked were one improper to be granted, which 
was not the case with Cicero. And he went about the 
Forum in mourning, " sordidatus," as was the custom 
with men on their trial. We cannot doubt that in each 
of these cases he acted with the advice of his friends. 
His conduct and his words after his return from exile betray 
exaltation rather than despondency. 

It is from the letters which he wrote to Atticus that he 
has been judged, from words boiling with indignation that 
such a one as he should have been surrendered by the Eome 
that he had saved, by those friends to whom he had been 
so true, to be trampled on by such a one as Clodius ! When 
a man has written words intended for the public ear it is 
fair that he should bear the brunt of them, be it what it may. 
He has intended them for public effect, and if they are used 
against him he should not complain. But here the secret 
murmurings of the man's soul were sent forth to his choicest 
friend with no idea that from them would he be judged 
by the " historians to come in 600 years " l of whose good 
word he thought so much. " Quid vero historiae de nobis 
ad annos DC. prsedicarint ! " he says to Atticus. How is 
it that from them, after 2000 years, the Merivales Momm- 
sens and Froudes condemn their great brother in letters 
whose lightest utterances have been found worthy of so 
long a life! Is there not an injustice in falling upon a 
man's private words, words when written intended only 

1 The 600 years, or anni DC., is used to signify unlimited futurity. 



366 LIFE OF CICERO. 

for privacy, and making them the basis of an accusation 
in which an illustrious man shall be arraigned for ever 
as a coward ? It is said that he was unjust even to Atticus, 
accusing even Atticus of lukewarmness. What if he did 
so, for an hour ? Is that an affair of ours ? Did Atticus 
quarrel with him ? Let any reader of these words who 
has lived long enough to have an old friend ask himself 
whether there has never been a moment of anger in his 
heart, of anger of which he has soon learnt to recognise 
the injustice ? He may not have written his anger, but then 
perhaps he has not had the too ready pen of a Cicero. 
Let those who rebuke the unmanliness of Cicero's wailings 
remember what were his sufferings. The story has yet 
to be told, but I may in rough words describe their nature. 
Everything was to be taken from him ; all that he had ; 
his houses, his books, his pleasant gardens, his busts 
and pictures, his wide retinue of slaves and possessions 
lordly as are those of our Dukes and Earls. He was driven 
out from Italy, and so driven that no place of delight could 
be open to him. Sicily where he had friends, Athens where 
he might have lived, were closed against him. He had to 
look where to live and did live, for a while on money borrowed 
from his friends. All the cherished occupations of his life 
were over for him, the law courts, the forum, the Senate, 
and the crowded meetings of Eoman citizens hanging on 
his words. The circumstances of his exile separated him 
from his wife and children, so that he was alone. All this 
was assured to him for life, as far as Roman law could 
assure it. Let us think of the condition of some great 



HIS EXILE. 367 

and serviceable Englishman in similar circumstances. Let 
us suppose that Sir Eobert Peel had been impeached, and 
forced by some iniquitous sentence to live beyond the 
pale of civilisation ; that the houses at Whitehall Gardens, 
and at Drayton had been confiscated, dismantled, and levelled 
to the ground, and h*is rents and revenues made over to 
his enemies; that everything should have been done to 
destroy him by the country he had served, except the 
act of taking away that life which would thus have been 
made a burden to him ! "Would not his case have been 
more piteous, a source of more righteous indignation, than 
that even of the Mores or Ealeighs ? He suffered under 
invectives in the House of Commons, and we sympathised 
with him, but if some Clodius of the day could have 
done this to him, should we have thought the worse of 
him had he opened his wounds to his wife or to his 
brother, or to his friend of friends? 

Had Cicero put an end to his life in his exile, as he thought 
of doing, he would have been a second Cato to admiring 
posterity, and some Lucan, with rolling verses, would have 
told us narratives of his valour. The judges of to-day look 
back to his half-formed purposes in this direction as being 
an added evidence of the weakness of the man ; but had he 
let himself blood and have perished in his bath he would 
have been thought to have escaped from life as honourably 
as did Junius Brutus. It is because he dared to live on 
that we are taught to think so little of him, because he 
had antedated Christianity so far as to feel when the moment 
came that such an escape was in truth unmanly. He 



368 LIFE OF CICERO. 

doubted ; and when the deed had not been done he expressed 
regret that he had allowed himself to live. But he did not 
do it, as Cato would have done or Brutus. 

It may be as well here to combat, in as few words as 
possible, the assertions which have been made that Cicero, 
having begun life as a democrat, discarded his colours as 
soon as he had received from the people those honours 
for which he had sought popularity. They who have said 
so have taken their idea from the fact that in much of 
his early forensic work he spoke against the aristocratic 
party. He attacked Sulla, through his favourite Chrysogonus, 
in his defence of Koscius Amerinus. He afterwards defended 
a woman of Arretium in the spirit of antagonism to Sulla. 
His accusation of Verres was made on the same side in 
politics, and was carried on in opposition to Hortensius 
and the oligarchs. He defended the Tribune Caius 
Cornelius. Then when he became Consul, he devoted 
himself to the destruction of Catiline who was joined with 
many, perhaps with Caesar's sympathy, in the conspiracy for 
the overthrow of the Republic. Csesar soon became the leader 
of the democracy, became rather what Mommsen describes 
as " Democracy " itself and as Cicero had defended the 
Senate from Catiline and had refused to attach himself 
to Csesar, he is supposed to have turned from the political 
ideas of his youth and to have become a Conservative, when 
Conservative ideas suited his ambition. 

I will not accept the excuse put forward on his behalf 
that the early speeches were made on the side of democracy 
because the exigencies of the occasion required him to 



HIS EXILE. 369 

so devote his energies as an advocate. No doubt he was 
an advocate as are our barristers of to-day, and, as an 
advocate supported this side or that. But we shall be 
wrong if we suppose that the Eoman ' patronus ' supplied 
his services under such inducements. With us a man goes 
into the profession of the law with the intention of making 
money, and takes the cases right and left, unless there 
be special circumstances which may . debar him from 
doing so with honour. It is a point of etiquette with him 
to give his assistance, in turn, as he may be called on; 
so much so, that leading men are not unfrequently employed 
on one side simply that they may not be employed on 
the other side. It should not be urged on the part of 
Cicero that so actuated he defended Amerinus, a case in 
which he took part against the aristocrats, or defended 
Publius Sulla in doing which he appeared on the side of 
the aristocracy. Such a defence of his conduct would be 
misleading and might be confuted. It would be confuted 
by those who suppose him to have been "notoriously a 
political trimmer " l as Mommsen has called him, or a 
" deserter " as he was described by Dio Cassius and by 
the Pseudo-Sallust, 2 by showing that in fact he took up 
causes under the influence of strong personal motives such 
as rarely govern an English barrister. These motives were 

1 Mommsen's History, Book v. ca. v. 

2 " AuT<fyioA.oy wi/opdfao," is the phrase of Dio Cassius. " Levissume 
transfuga " is the translation made by the author of the " Declamatio in 
Ciceronem." If I might venture on a slang phrase I should say that 
" oi>T(fyia\os " was a man who " went off on his own hook." But no man was 
ever more loyal as a political adherent than Cicero. 

VOL. I. B B 



370 LIFE OF CICERO. 

in many cases partly political ; but they operated in such 
a manner as to give no guide to his political views. In 
defending Sulla's nephew he was moved, as far as we know, 
solely by private motives. In defending Amerinus he may 
be said to have attacked Sulla. His object was to stamp 
out the still burning embers of Sulla's cruelty. But not 
the less was he wedded to Sulla's general views as to 
the restoration of the authority of the Senate. In his early 
speeches, especially in that spoken against Verres, he 
denounces the corruption of the senatorial judges. But at 
that very period of his life he again and again expresses 
his own belief in the glory and majesty of the Senate. In 
accusing Verres he accused the general corruption of Eome's 
provincial governors, and as they were always past-Consuls 
or past-Prsetors and had been the elite of the aristocracy, 
he may be said so far to have taken the part of a democrat ; 
but he had done so only so far as he had found himself 
bound by a sense of duty to put a stop to corruption. The 
venality of the judges and the rapacity of governors had 
been fit objects for his eloquence. . But I deny that he can be 
fairly charged with having tampered with democracy because 
he had thus used his eloquence on behalf of the people. 
He was no doubt stirred by other political motives less 
praiseworthy, though submitted to in accordance with the 
practice and the known usages of Eome. He had under- 
taken to speak for Catiline when Catiline was accused of 
corruption on his return from Africa, knowing that Catiline 
had been guilty. He did not do so ; but the intention, 
for our present 'purpose is the same as the doing. To have 



HIS EXILE. 371 

defended Catiline would have assisted him in his operations 
as a candidate for the Consulship. Catiline was a bad 
subject for a defence, as was Fonteius whom he certainly 
did defend, and Catiline was a democrat. But Cicero had 
he defended Catiline, would not have done so as holding 
out his hand to democracy. Cicero when, in the " Pro 
Lege Manilia" he for the first time addressed the people, 
certainly spoke in opposition to the wishes of the Senate 
in proposing that Pompey should have the command of 
the Mithridatic war, but his views were not democratic. 
It has been said that this was done because Pompey could 
help him to the Consulship. To me it seems that he had 
already declared to himself that among leading men in 
Kome Pompey was the one to whom the Eepublic would 
look with the most security as a bulwark, and that on that 
account he had resolved to bind himself to Pompey in some 
political marriage. Be that as it may, there was no tampering 
with democracy in the speech " Pro Lege Manilia." Of 
all the extant orations made by him before his Consulship 
the attentive reader will sympathise the least with that 
for Fonteius. After his scathing onslaught on Verres for 
provincial plunder, he defended the plunderer of the Gauls, 
and held up the suffering allies of Rome to ridicule as 
being hardly entitled to good government. This he did 
simply as an advocate, without political motive of any 
kind, in the days in which he was supposed to be currying 
favour with democracy, governed by private friendship, 
looking forward probably to some friendly office in return, as 
was customary. It was thus that afterwards he defended 

B B 2 



372 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Antony, his colleague in the Consulship, whom he knew 
to have been a corrupt governor. Autronius had been a 
party to Catiline's conspiracy, and Autronius had been Cicero's 
schoolfellow, but Cicero for some reserved reason with which 
we are not acquainted refused to plead for Autronius. There 
is, I maintain no ground for suggesting that Cicero had 
shown by his speeches before his Consulship any party 
adherence. The declaration which he made after his Con- 
sulship, in the speech for Sulla, that up to the time of 
Catiline's first conspiracy forensic duties had not allowed 
him to devote himself to party politics, is entitled to belief. 
We know indeed that it was so. As Quaestor, as ^Edile, 
and as Praetor he did not interfere in the political questions 
of Rome except in demanding justice from judges and 
purity from governors. When he became Consul, then he 
became a politician, and after that there was certainly no 
vacillation in his views. Critics say that he surrendered 
himself to Caesar when Caesar became master. We shall 
come to that hereafter; but the accusation with which I 
am dealing now is that which charges him with having 
abandoned the democratic memories of his youth as soon 
as he had enveloped himself with the Consular purple. 
There had been no democratic promises, and there was 
no change when he became Consul. 

In truth Cicero's political convictions were the same from 
the beginning to the end of his career, with a consistency 
which is by no means usual in politicians. For though, 
before his Consulship, he had not taken up politics as a 
business, he had entertained certain political views, as do all 



HIS EXILE. 373 

men who live in public. From the first to the last we may 
best describe him, by the word we have now in use, as a Con- 
servative. The government of Koine had been an oligarchy 
for many years, though much had been done by the citizens 
to reduce the thraldom which an oligarchy is sure to exact. 
To that oligarchy Cicero was bound by all the convictions, 
by all the practices, and by all the prejudices of his life. 
When he speaks of a Eepublic he speaks of a people and 
of an Empire governed by an oligarchy; he speaks of a 
power to be kept in the hands of a few, for the benefit 
of the few, and of the many if it might be, but at any rate 
in the hands of a few. That those few should be so select 
as to admit of no new comers among them would probably 
have been a portion of his political creed, had he not been 
himself a " novus homo." As he was the first of his family 
to storm the barrier of the fortress he had been forced to 
depend much on popular opinion ; but not on that account 
had there been any dealings between him and democracy. 
That the Empire should be governed according to the old 
oligarchical forms which had been in use for more than four 
centuries, and had created the power of Eome, that was 
his political creed. That Consuls, Censors, and Senators 
mi^ht go on to the end of time with no diminution of their 

O O 

dignity, but with great increase of justice and honour and 
truth among them, that was his political aspiration. They 
had made Eome what it was, and he knew and could imagine 
nothing better. And, odious as an oligarchy is seen to be 
under the strong light of experience to which prolonged 
ages has subjected it, the aspiration on his part was noble. 



374 LIFE OF CICERO. 

He has been wrongly accused of deserting "that democracy 
with which he had flirted in his youth." There had been 
no democracy in his youth though -there had existed such 
a condition in the time of the Gracchi. There was none 
in his youth and none in his age. That which has been 
wrongly called democracy was conspiracy ; not a conspiracy 
of democrats such as led to our Commonwealth, or to the 
American Independence, or to the French Eevolution ; but 
conspiracy of a few nobles for the better assurance of the 
plunder and the power and the high places of the Empire. 
Of any tendency towards democracy no man has been less 
justly accused than Cicero, unless it might be Csesar. To 
Caesar we must accord the merit of having seen that a con- 
tinuation of the old oligarchical forms was impracticable. This 
Cicero did not see. He thought that the wounds inflicted by 
the degeneracy and profligacy of individuals were curable. It 
is attributed to Caesar that he conceived the grand idea of 
establishing general liberty under the sole dominion of one 
great, and therefore beneficent ruler. I think he saw no farther 
than that he, by strategy, management and courage, might be- 
come this ruler, whether beneficent or the reverse. But here 
I think that it becomes the writer, whether he be historian, 
biographer, or fill whatever meaner position he may in litera- 
ture, to declare that no beneficence can accompany such a form 
of government. For all temporary sleekness, for metropolitan 
comfort and fatness, the bill has to be paid sooner or later 
in ignorance, poverty and oppression. With an oligarchy 
there will be other, perhaps graver faults. But with an 
oligarchy there will be salt, though it be among a few. 



HIS EXILE. 375 

There will be a Cicero now and again, or at least .a Cato. 
From the dead, stagnant level of personal despotism there 
can be no rising to life till corruption paralyses the hands 
of power, and the fabric falls by its own decay. Of this 
no proof can be found in the world's history so manifest 
as that taught by the Eoman Empire. 

I think it is made clear by a study of Cicero's life and 
works up to the period of his exile that an adhesion to the 
old forms of the Eoman government was his guiding prin- 
ciple. I am sure that they who follow me to the close of 
his career will acknowledge that after his exile he lived for 
this principle, and that he died for it. " Eespublica," the 
Eepublic, was the one word which to his ear contained a 
political charm. It was the Shibboleth by which men were 
to be conjured into well-being. The word Constitution is 
nearly as potent with us. But it is essential that the reader 
of Eoman history and Eoman biography should understand 
that the appellation had in it for all Eoman ears a thoroughly 
conservative meaning. Among those who at Cicero's period 
dealt with politics in Eorne, all of whom no doubt spoke of 
the Eepublic as the vessel of State which was to be defended 
by all persons, there were four classes. These were they 
who simply desired the plunder of the State, the Catilines, 
the Sullas of the day, and the Antonys ; men such as Verres 
had been, and Fonteius and Autronius. The other three 
can be best typified each by one man. There was Caesar, 
who knew that the Eepublic was gone, past all hope. There 
was Cato, "the dogmatical fool Cato" as Mommsen calls 
him, perhaps with some lack of the historian's dignity, who 



376 LIFE OF CICERO. 

was true to the Eepublic, who could not bend an inch, and 
was thus as detrimental to any hope of reconstruction as a 
Catiline or a Csesar. Cicero was of the fourth class, believing 
in the Eepublic, intent on saving it, imbued amidst all his 
doubts with a conviction that if the " optimates" or "boni," 
the leading men of the party, would be true to them- 
selves, Consuls, Censors and Senate would still suffice to rule 
the world ; but prepared to give and take with those who 
were opposed to him. It was his idea that political integrity 
should keep its own hands clean, but should wink at much 
dirt in the world at large. Nothing, he saw, could be done by 
Catonic rigour. We can see now that Ciceronic compromises 
were and must have been equally ineffective. The patient 
was past cure. But in seeking the truth as to Cicero we have 
to perceive that amidst all his doubts, frequently in de- 
spondency, sometimes overwhelmed by the misery and hope- 
lessness of his condition, he did hold fast by this idea to the 
end. The frequent expressions made to Atticus in opposition 
to this belief are to be taken as the murmurs of his mind 
at the moment, as you shall hear a man swear that all 
is gone and see him tear his hair, and shall yet know that 
there is a deep fund of hope within his bosom. It was the 
ingratitude of his political friends, his "boni" and his 
" optimates," of Pompey as their head, which tried him the 
sorest; but he was always forgiving them, forgiving Pompey 
as the head of them, because he knew that were he to be 
severed from them, then the political world must be closed 
to him altogether. 

Of Cicero's strength or Cicero's weakness Pompey seems 



HIS EXILE. 377 

to have known nothing. He was no judge of men. Caesar 
measured him with a great approach to accuracy. Csesar 
knew him to be the best Eoman of his day, one who if he 
could be brought over to serve in Csesarean ranks would be 
invaluable, because of his honesty, his eloquence, and his 
capability. But he knew him as one who must be silenced 
if he were not brought to serve on the Csesarean side. Such 
a man however might be silenced for a while, taught to 
perceive that his efforts were vain and then brought into 
favour by further overtures, and made of use. Personally he 
was pleasant to Caesar, who had taste enough to know that 
he was a man worthy of all personal dignity. But Csesar 
was not, I think, quite accurate in his estimation, having 
allowed himself to believe at the last that Cicero's energy 
on behalf of the Republic had been quelled. 

Now we will go back to the story of Cicero's exile. 
B c 58 Gradually during the preceding year he had learned 
setat. 49. ^^ clonus was preparing to attack him and to 
doubt whether he could expect protection from the Trium- 
virate. That he could be made safe by the justice either 
of the people or by that of any court before which he could 
be tried, seems never to have occurred to him. He knew 
the people and he knew the courts too well. Pompey no 
doubt might have warded off the coming evil. Such at least 
was Cicero's idea. To him Pompey was the greatest political 
power as yet extant in Rome ; but he was beginning to 
believe that Pompey would be untrue to him. When he had 
sent to Pompey a long account of the grand doings of his 
Consulship, Pompey had replied with faintest praises. He 



378 LIFE OF CICERO. 

had rejected the overtures of the Triumvirate. In the last 
letter to Atticus in the year before, written in August, 1 he 
had declared that the Republic was ruined; that they who 
had brought things to this pass, meaning the Triumvirate, 
were hostile ; but, for himself, he was confident in saying 
that he was quite safe in the good will of men around him. 
There is a letter to his brother written in November, the 
next letter in the collection, in which he says that Pompey 
and Caesar promise him everything. With the exception 
of two letters of introduction we have nothing from him 
till he writes to Atticus from the first scene of his exile. 

When the new year commenced Clodius was Tribune of 
the people, and immediately was active. Piso and Gabinius 
were Consuls. Piso was kinsman to Piso Frugi who had 
married Cicero's daughter, 2 and was expected to befriend 
Cicero at this crisis. But Clodius procured the allotment 
of Syria and Macedonia to the two Consuls by the popular 
vote. They were Provinces rich in plunder ; and it was 
matter of importance for a Consul to know that the prey 
which should come to him as Proconsul should be worthy 
of his grasp. They were therefore ready to support the 
Tribune in what he proposed to do. It was necessary to 
Cicero's enemies that there should be some law by which 
Cicero might be condemned. It would not be within the 
power of Clodius, even with the Triumvirate at his back, 



1 Ad Att. ii. 25. 

2 We do not know when the marriage took place, or any of the circum- 
stances. But we are aware that when Tullia came, in the following year, 
B.C. 57, to meet her father at Brundisium, she was a widow. 



HIS EXILE. 379 

\ 

to drive the man out of Rome and out of Italy, without 
an alleged cause. Though Justice had been tabooed, Law 
was still in vogue. Now there was a matter as to which 
Cicero was open to attack. As Consul he had caused 
certain Eoman citizens to be executed as conspirators 
in the teeth of a law which enacted that no Eoman 
citizen should be condemned to die except by a direct 
vote of the people. It had certainly become a maxim 
of the constitution of the Eepublic that a citizen should 
not be made to suffer death, except by the voice of the 
people. The Valerian, the Porcian, and the Sempronian 
Laws had all been passed to that effect. Now there had 
been no popular vote as to the execution of Lentulus and 
the other conspirators who had been taken red-handed in 
Eome in the affair of Catiline. Their death had been 
decreed by the Senate, and the decree of the Senate had 
been carried out by Cicero. But no decree of the Senate 
had the power of a law. In spite of that decree the old 
law was in force; and no appeal to the people had been 
allowed to Lentulus. But there had grown up in the 
constitution a practice which had been supposed to override 
the Valerian and Porcian laws. In certain emergencies 
the Senate would call upon the Consuls to see that the 
Eepublic should suffer no injury, and it had been held that 
at such moments the Consuls were invested with an authority 
above all law. Cicero had been thus strengthened when 
as Consul he had struggled with Catiline. But it was an 
open question, as Cicero himself very well knew. In the 
year of his Consulship, the very year in which Lentulus 



380 LIFE OF CICERO. 

and the others had been strangled, he had defended 
Eabirius who was then accused of having killed a citizen 
thirty years before. Eabirius was charged with having 
slaughtered the Tribune Saturninus by consular authority, 
the Consuls of the day having been ordered to defend the 
Eepublic, as Cicero had been ordered. Eabirius probably had 
not killed Saturninus, nor did any one now care whether he 
had done so or not. The trial had been brought about 
notoriously by the agency of Csesar, who caused himself to 
be selected by the Praetor as one of the two judges for the 
occasion ; l and Caesar's object as notoriously was to lessen 
the authority of the Senate, and to support the democratic 
interest. Both Cicero and Hortensius defended Eabirius, but 
he was condemned by Caesar, and, as we are told, himself 
only escaped by using that appeal to the people in support 
of which he had himself been brought to trial. In this, as 
in so many of the forensic actions of the day, there had 
been an admixture of violence and law. We must, I think, 
acknowledge that there was the same leaven of illegality in 
the proceedings against Lentulus. It had no doubt been 
the intention of the constitution that a Consul in the heat 
of an emergency should use his personal authority for the 
protection of the Commonwealth, but it cannot be alleged 
that there was such an emergency when the full Senate had 
had time to debate on the fate of the Catiline criminals. 
Both from Caesar's words as reported by Sallust, and by 
Cicero's as given to us by himself, we are aware that an idea 

1 Suetonius, Julius Caesar, xii. " Subornavit etiam qui C. Kabirio per- 
duellionis diem diceret. " 



HIS EXILE. 381 

of the illegality of the proceeding was present in the minds 
of Senators at the moment. But, though law was loved at 
Borne, all forensic and legislative proceedings were at this 
time carried on with monstrous illegality. Consuls consulted 
the heavens falsely ; Tribunes used their veto violently ; 
judges accepted bribes openly; the votes of the people were 
manipulated fraudulently. In the trial and escape of 
Rabirius the laws were despised by those who pretended to 
vindicate them. Clodius had now become a Tribune by the 
means of certain legal provision, but yet in opposition to all 
law. In the conduct of the affair against Catiline Cicero 
seems to have been actuated by pure patriotism and to have 
been supported by a fine courage ; but he knew that in 
destroying Lentulus and Cethegus he subjected himself to 
certain dangers, He had willingly faced these dangers for 
the sake of the object in view. As long as he might remain 
the darling of the people, as he was at that moment, he 
would no doubt be safe ; but it was not given to any one 
to be for long the darling of the Eoman people. Cicero 
had become so by using an eloquence to which the Romans 
were peculiarly susceptible. But though they loved sweet 
tongues, long purses went further with them. Since Cicero's 
Consulship he had done nothing to offend the people, except 
to remain occasionally out of their sight ; but he had lost the 
brilliancy of his popularity, and he was aware that it was so. 
In discussing popularity in Rome we have to remember of 
what elements it was formed. We hear. that this or that 
man was potent at some special time by the assistance 
coming to him from the popular voice. There was in Rome 



382 LIFE OF CICERO. 

a vast population of idle men, who had been trained by their 
city life to look to the fact of their citizenship for their 
support, and who did in truth live on their citizenship. Of 
" panem et circenses " we have all heard, and know that 
eleemosynary bread and the public amusements of the day 
supplied the material and aesthetic wants of many Eomans. 
But men so fed and so amused were sure to need further 
occupations. They became attached to certain friends, to 
certain patrons, and to certain parties, and soon learned that 
a return was expected for the food, and for the excitement 
supplied to them. This they gave by holding themselves in 
readiness for whatever violence was needed from them, till it 
became notorious in Borne that a great party man might best 
attain his political object by fighting for it in the streets. 
This was the meaning of that saying of Crassus, that a 
man could not be considered rich till he could keep an 
army in his own pay. A popular vote obtained and 
declared by a faction fight in the forum was still a 
popular vote, and if supported by sufficient violence would 
be valid. There had been street fighting of the kind 
when Cicero had defended Caius Cornelius, in the year 
after his Prsetorship. There had been fighting of the 
kind when Eabirius had been condemned in his Consulship. 
We shall learn by and by to what extent such fighting 
prevailed when Clodius was killed by Milo's body-guard. 
At the period of which we are now writing, when Clodius 
was intent on pursuing Cicero to his ruin, it was a question 
with Cicero himself whether he would not trust to a certain 
faction in Eome to fight for him, and so to protect him. 



HIS EXILE. 383 

Though his popularity was on the wane, that general 
popularity which, we may presume, had been produced by the 
tone of his voice and the grace of his language, there still 
remained to him that other popularity which consisted in truth 
of the trained bands employed by the " boni," and the " opti- 
mates," and which might be used, if need were, in opposition 
to trained bands on the other side. 

The bill first proposed by Clodius to the people with the 
object of destroying Cicero, did not mention Cicero, nor in 
truth refer to him. It purported to enact that he who had 
caused to be executed any Eoman citizen not duly condemned 
to death, should himself be deprived of the privilege of water 
or fire. 1 This condemned no suggested malefactor to death ; 
but, in accordance with Eoman law, made it impossible that 
any Eoman so condemned should live within whatever 
bounds might be named for this withholding of fire and 
water. The penalty intended was banishment. But by this 
enactment no individual would be banished. Cicero, however, 
at once took the suggestion to himself and put himself into 
mourning, as a man accused and about to be brought to his 
trial. He went about the streets accompanied by crowds 
armed for his protection ; and Clodius also caused himsel f 
to be so accompanied. There came thus to be a question 
which might prevail should there be a general fight. The 
Senate was as a body on Cicero's side, but was quite unable 
to cope with the Triumvirate. Caesar no doubt had resolved 
that Cicero should be made to go ; and Caesar was lord of 

1 " Qui civem Eomanuni indemnatum perimisset, ei aqua at igui interdice- 
retur." 



384 LIFE OF CICERO. 

the Triumvirate. On behalf of Cicero there was a large body 
of the conservative or oligarchical party who were still true 
to him ; and they, too, all went into the usual public mourn- 
ing, evincing their desire that the accused man should be 

O' O 

rescued from his accusers. 

The bitterness of Clodius would be surprising did we not 
know how bitter had been Cicero's tongue. When the affair 
of the Bona Dea had taken place there was no special enmity 
between this debauched young man and the great Consul. 
Cicero, though his own life had ever been clean and well 
ordered, rather affected the company of fast young men when 
he found them to be witty as well as clever. This very 
Clodius had been in his good books, till the affair of the Bona 
Dea. But now the Tribune's hatred was internecine. I have 
hitherto said nothing and need say but little, of a certain 
disreputable lady named Clodia. She was the sister of 
Clodius and the wife of Metellus Celer. She was accused, by 
public voice in Eome of living in incest with her brother, 
and of poisoning her husband. Cicero calls her afterwards 
in his defence of Cselius, " arnica omnium." She had the 
nickname of Quadrantaria * given to her because she fre- 
quented the public baths, at which the charge was a farthing. 
It must be said also of her, either in praise or in dispraise, 
that she was the Lesbia who inspired the muse of Catullus. 
It was rumoured in Eome that she had endeavoured to set 
her cap at Cicero. Cicero in his raillery had not spared the 
lady. To speak publicly the grossest evil of women was not 

1 Plutarch tells us of this sobriquet, but gives another reasou for it, 
equally injurious to the lady's reputation. 



HIS EXILE. 385 

opposed to any idea of gallantry current among the Eomans. 
Our sense of chivalry, as well as decency, is disgusted by 
the language used by Horace to women who once to him 
were young and pretty but have become old and ugly. The 
venom of Cicero's abuse of Clodia annoys us, and we have 
to remember that the gentle ideas which we have taken in 
with our mother's milk had not grown into use with the 
Komans. It is necessary that this woman's name should 
be mentioned, and it may appear here as she was one of 
the causes of that hatred which burned between Clodius 
and Cicero, till Clodius was killed in a street row. 

It has been presumed that Cicero was badly advised in 
presuming publicly that the new law was intended against 
himself, and in taking upon himself the outward signs of a 
man under affliction. " The resolution," says Middleton, " of 
changing his gown was too hasty and inconsiderate and helped 
to precipitate his ruin." He was sensible of his error when too 
late, and oft reproaches Atticus that being a stander-by, and 
less heated with the game than himself, he would suffer him 
to make such blunders. And he quotes the words written to 
Atticus. " Here my judgment first failed me, or indeed 
brought me into trouble. We were blind, blind I say, in 

changing our raiment and in appealing to the populace 

I handed myself and all belonging to me over to my enemies, 
while you were looking on, while you were holding your 
peace ; yes, you, who, if your wit in the matter was no 
better than mine, were impeded by no personal fears." l But 

1 Ad Att. lib. iii. 15. 
VOL. I. CO 



386 LIFE OF CICERO. 

the reader should study the entire letter, and study it in the 
original, for no translator can give its true purport. This the 
reader must do before he can understand Cicero's state of 
mind when writing it, or his relation to Atticus, or the 
thoughts w r hich distracted him when in accordance with the 
advice of Atticus he resolved, while yet uncondemned, to 
retire into banishment. The censure to which Atticus is 
subjected throughout this letter is that which a thoughtful 
hesitating scrupulous man is so often disposed to address to 
himself. After reminding Atticus of the sort of advice which 
should have been given, the want of which in the first 
moment of his exile he regrets, and doing this in words of 
which it is very difficult now to catch the exact flavour, he 
begs to be pardoned for his reproaches. " You will forgive 
me this," he says. " I blame myself more than I do you. 
But I look to you as a second self, and I make you a sharer 
with me of my own folly." I take this letter out of its course 
and speak of it as connected with that terrible period of 
doubt to which it refers, in which he had to decide whether, 
he would remain in Eome and fight it out, or run before his 
enemies. But in writing the letter afterwards his mind 
was as much disturbed as when he did fly. I am inclined 
therefore to think that Middleton and others may have 
been wrong in blaming his flight, which they have done 
because in his subsequent vacillating moods he blamed him- 
self. How the battle might have gone had he remained, we 
have no evidence to show, but we do know that though he 
fled, he returned soon with renewed glory, and altogether 
overcame the attempt which had been made to destroy him. 



HIS EXILE. 387 

ID this time of his distress a strong effort was made by the 
Senate to rescue him. It was proposed to them that they all 
as a body should go into mourning on his behalf. Indeed 
the Senate passed a vote to this effect, but were prevented 
by the two Consuls from carrying it out. As to what he 
had best do he and his friends were divided. Some recom- 
mended that he should remain where he was, and defend 
himself by street-fighting should it be necessary. In doing 
this he would acknowledge that law no longer prevailed in 
Rome, a condition of things to which many had given in 
their adherence but with which Cicero would surely have 
been the last to comply. He himself, in his despair, thought 
for a time that the old Roman mode of escape would be 
preferable and that he might with decorum end his life 
and his troubles by suicide. Atticus and others dissuaded 
him from this and recommended him to fly. Among these 
Cato and Hortensius have both been named. To this advice 
he at last yielded, and it may be doubted whether any better 
could have been given. Lawlessness, which had been ram- 
pant in Rome before, had, under the Triumvirate, become 
almost lawful. It was Ceesar's intention to carry out his 
will with such compliance with the forms of the Republic 
as might suit him, but, in utter disregard to all such forms, 
when they did not suit him. This banishment of Cicero was 
one of the last steps taken by Caesar before he left Rome 
for his campaigns in Gaul. He was already in command 
of the legions and was just without the city. He had 
endeavoured to buy Cicero, but had failed. Having failed 
he had determined to be rid of him. Clodius was but his 

c c 2 



388 LIFE OF CICERO. 



tool, as were Pompey and the two Consuls. Had Cicero 
endeavoured to support himself by violence in Rome, his 
contest would in fact have been with Csesar. 

Cicero, before he went, applied for protection personally 
to Piso the Consul and to Pompey. Gabinius the other 
Consul had already declared his purpose to the Senate, but 
Piso was bound to him by family ties. He himself relates 
to us in his oration spoken, after his return, against this 
Piso the manner of the meeting between him and Rome's 
chief officer. Piso told him, so at least Cicero declared in 
the Senate and we have heard of no contradiction, that 
Gabinius was so driven by debts as to be unable to hold 
up his head without a rich province ; that he himself, Piso, 
could only hope to get a province by taking part with 
Gabinius ; that any application to the Consuls was useless, 
and that everyone must look after himself. 1 Concerning his 
appeal to Pompey two stories have been given to us, neither 
of which appear to be true. Plutarch says that when Cicero 
had travelled out from Rome to Pompey's Alban villa, 
Pompey ran out of the back door to avoid meeting him. 
Plutarch cared more for a good story than for accuracy, and 
is not worthy of much credit as to details unless when cor- 
roborated. The other account is based on Cicero's assertion 
that he did see Pompey on this occasion. Nine or ten years 
after the meeting he refers to it in a letter to Atticus, which 
leaves no doubt as to the fact. The story founded on that 
letter declares that Cicero threw himself bodily at his old 

1 In Pisonem, vi. 



HIS EXILE. 389 

friend's feet, and that Pompey did not lend a hand to raise 
him but told him simply that everything was in Caesar's 
hands. This narrative is, I think, due to 'a misinterpre- 
tation of Cicero's words, though it is given by a close 
translation of them. He is describing Pompey when Caesar 
after his Gallic wars had crossed the Bubicon, and the two 
late Triumvirates, the third having perished miserably in the 
East, were in arms against each other. " Alter ardet furore 
et scelere," he says. 1 Caesar is pressing on unscrupulous in his 
passion. " Alter is qui nos sibi quondam ad pedes stratos 
ne sublevabat quidem, qui se nihil contra hujus voluntatem 
aiebat facere posse." " That other one," he continues, mean- 
ing Pompey and pursuing his picture of the present contrast, 
"who in days gone by would not even lift me when 
I lay at his feet, and told me that he could do nothing but 
as Caesar wished it." This little supposed detail of biography 
has been given no doubt from an accurate reading of the 
words ; but in it the spirit of the writer's mind as he wrote 
it, has surely been missed. The prostration of which he 
spoke, from which Pompey would not raise him, the memory 
of which was still so bitter to him, was not a prostration of 
the body. I hold it to have been impossible that Cicero 
should have assumed such an attitude before Pompey, or 
that he would so have written to Atticus had he done so. 
It would have been neither Roman nor Ciceronian, as displayed 
by Cicero to Pompey. He had gone to his old ally and told 
him of his trouble, and had no doubt reminded him of those 

1 Ad Att. lib. x. 4. 



390 LIFE OF CICERO. 

promises of assistance which Pompey had so often 'made. 
Then Pompey had refused to help him, and had assured him, 
with too much truth, that Caesar's will was everything. 
Again we have to remember that in judging of the meaning 
of words between two such correspondents as Cicero and 
Atticus, we must read between the lines, and interpret the 
words by creating for ourselves something of the spirit in 
which they were written, and in which they were received. 
I cannot imagine that in describing to Atticus what had 
occurred at that interview nine years after it had taken 
place, Cicero had intended it to be understood that he had 
really grovelled in the dust. 

Towards the end of March he started from Rome intending 
to take refuge among his friends in Sicily. On the same 
day Clodius brought in a bill directed against Cicero by 
name and caused it to be carried by the people, " Ut Marco 
Tullio aqua et igni interdictum sit : " that it should be 
illegal to supply Cicero with fire and water. The law 
when passed forbade any one to harbour the criminal within 
four hundred miles of Eome, and declared the doing so to 
be a capital offence. It is evident from the action of 
those who obeyed the law and of those who did not, that 
legal results were not feared so much as the ill will of those 
who had driven Cicero to his exile. They who refused him 
succour did do so not because to give it him would be 
illegal, but lest Caesar and Pompey would be offended. It 
did not last long, and during the short period of his exile 
he found perhaps more of friendship than of enmity. But 
he directed his steps in accordance with the bearing of party 



HIS EXILE. 391 

spirit. We are told that he was afraid to go to Athens 
because at Athens lived that Autronius whom he had refused 
to defend. Autrouius had been convicted of conspiracy and 
banished, and having been a Catilinarian conspirator had been 
in truth on Caesar's side. Nor were geographical facts 
sufficiently established to tell Cicero what places were and 
what were not without the forbidden circle. He sojourned 
first at Vibo in the extreme south of Italy, intending to pass 
from thence into Sicily. It was there that he learned that 
a certain distance had been prescribed, but it seems that 
he had already heard that the Proconsular Governor of the 
island' would not receive him, fearing Caesar. Then he 
came north from Vibo to Brundisium, that being the port 
by which travellers generally went from Italy to the East. 
He had determined to leave his family in Eome, feeling 
probably that it would be easier for him to find a temporary 
home for himself than for him and them together. And 
there were money difficulties in which Atticus helped him. 1 
Atticus, always wealthy, had now become a very rich man 
by the death of an uncle. We do not know of what nature 
were the money arrangements made by Cicero at the time, 
but there can be no doubt that the losses by his exile were 
very great. There was a thorough disruption of his pro- 
perty for which the subsequent generosity of his country 
was unable altogether to atone. But this sat lightly on 



1 We are told by Cornelius Nepos in his life of Atticus that when Cicero 
fled from his country Atticus advanced to him 250 sesterces, or about 2,OOOZ. 
I doubt however whether the flight here referred to was not that early visit 
to Athens which Cicero was supposed to have made in his fear of Sulla. 



392 LIFE OF CICERO. 

Cicero's heart. Pecuniary losses never weighed heavily with 
him. 

As he journeyed back from Vibo to Brundisium friends 
were very kind to him in spite of the law. Towards the 
end of the speech which he made five years afterwards on 
behalf of his friend C. Plancius he explains the debt of 
gratitude which he owed to his client whose kindness to him 
in his exile had been very great. He commences his story 
of the goodness of Plancius by describing the generosity of 
the towns on the road to Brundisium and the hospitality 
of his friend Flavins who had received him at his house in 
the neighbourhood of that town and had placed him safely 
on board a ship when at last he resolved to cross over 
to Dyrrachium. There were many schemes running in his 
head at this time. At one period he had resolved to pass 
through Macedonia into Asia, and to remain for a while 
at Cyzicum. This idea he expresses in a letter to his wife 
written from Brundisium. Then he goes, wailing no doubt, 
but in words which to me seem very natural as coming 
from a husband in such a condition. "0 me perditum, 
me afflictuin," 1 exclamations which it is impossible to trans- 
late, as they refer to his wife's separation from himself rather 
than to his own personal sufferings. " How am I to ask 
you to come to me," he says, " you a woman, ill in health, 
worn out in body and in spirit ? I cannot ask you ! Must I 
then live without you ? It must be so, I think. If there 
be any hope of my return it is you must look to it, you 

1 Ad Fam. lib. xiv. iv. " Tullius to his Terentin, and to his young Tullia, 
and to his Cicero," meaning his boy. 



HIS EXILE. 393 

that must strengthen it. But if as I fear, the thing is 
done ; then come to me. If I can have you I shall not 
be altogether destroyed." No doubt these are wailings; 
but is a man unmanly because he so wails to the wife of 
his bosom? Other Eomans have written prettily about 
women. It was common for Eomans to do so. Catullus 
desires from Lesbia as many kisses as are the stars of night 
or the sands of Libya. Horace swears that he would perish 
for Chloe if Chloe might be left alive. " When I am dying," 
says Tibullus to Delia, " may I be gazing at you ; may my 
last grasp hold your hand." Propertius tells Cynthia that 
she stands to him in lieu of home and parents and all the 
joys of life. "Whether he be sad with his friends or happy, 
Cynthia does it all." The language in each case is perfect ; 
but what other Koman was there of whom we have evidence 
that he spoke to his wife like this ? Ovid in his letters from 
his banishment says much of his love for his wife ; but there 
is no passion expressed in anything that Ovid wrote. 

Clodius, as soon as the enactment against Cicero became 
law, caused it be carried into effect with all its possible 
cruelties. The criminal's property was confiscated. The 
house on the Palatine Hill was destroyed, and the goods 
were put up to auction, with, as we are told, a great lack 
of buyers. His choicest treasures were carried away by the 
Consuls themselves. Piso who had lived near him in Rome 
got for himself and for his father-in-law the rich booty from 
.the town house. The country villas were also destroyed, 
and Gabinius who had a country house close by Cicero's 
Tusculan retreat took even the very shrubs out of the garden. 



394 LIFE OF CICERO. 

He tells the story of the greed and enmity of the Consuls 
in the speech he made after his return Pro Domo Sua, 1 
pleading for the restitution of his household property. 
" My house on the Palatine was burnt," he says, " not by 
any accident, but by arson. In the meantime the Consuls 
were feasting and were congratulating themselves among the 
conspirators ; when one boasted that he had been Catiline's 
friend, the other that Cethegus had been his cousin." By 
this he implies that the conspiracy which during his Consul- 
ship had been so odious to Eome, was now, in these days of 
the Triumvirate, again in favour among Eoman aristocrats. 

He went across from Brundisium to Dyrrachium, and from 
thence to Thessalonica, where he was treated with most 
loving kindness by Plancius who was Quaestor in these parts, 
and who came down to Dyrrachium to meet him, clad in 
mourning for the occasion. This was the Plancius whom he 
afterwards defended, and indeed he was bound to do so. 
Plancius seems to have had but little dread of the law though 
he was a Eoman officer employed in the very province to 
the government of which the present Consul Piso had already 
been appointed. Thessalonica was within 400 miles, and 
yet Cicero lived there with Plancius for some months. 

The letters from Cicero during his exile are to me very 
touching, though I have been told so often that in having 
written them he lacked the fortitude of a Eoman. Perhaps 
I am more capable of appreciating natural humanity than 
Eoman fortitude. We remember the story of the Spartan 



1 Pro Domo Sua, xxiv. 



HIS EXILE. 395 

boy who allowed the fox to bite him beneath his frock 
without crying. I think we may imagine that he refrained 
from tears in public, before some herd of schoolfellows, or a 
bench of masters, or amidst the sternness of parental au- 
thority ; but that he told his sister afterwards how he had 
been tortured, or his mother as he lay against her bosom, 
or perhaps his chosen chum. Such reticences are made 
dignified by the occasion, when something has to be won 
by controlling the expression to which nature uncontrolled 
would give utterance, but are not in themselves evidence 
either of sagacity or of courage. Eoman fortitude was but a 
suit of armour to be worn on state occasions. If we come 
across a warrior with his crested helmet and his sword 
and his spear, we see no doubt an impressive object. If 
we could find him in his night-shirt, the same man would 
be there ; but those who do not look deeply into things 
would be apt to despise him because his grand trappings 
were absent. Chance has given us Cicero in his night- 
shirt. The linen is of such fine texture that we are de- 
lighted with it, but we despise the man because he wore 
a garment, such as we wear ourselves indeed, though 
when we wear it nobody is then brought in to look 
at us. 

There is one most touching letter written from Thessa- 
lonica to his brother, by whom, after thoughts vacillating 
this way and that, he was unwilling to be visited, thinking 
that a meeting would bring more of pain than of service. 
" Mi frater, mi frater, mi frater ! " he begins. The words 
in English would hardly give all the pathos. " Did you 



396 LIFE OF CICERO. 

think that I did not write because I am angry ; or that I 
did not wish to see you ? I angry with you ? But I could 
not endure to be seen by you. You would not have seen 
your brother ; not him whom you had left ; not him 
whom you had known; not him whom, weeping as you 
went away, you had dismissed, weeping himself as he 
strove to follow you." l Then he heaps blame on his own 
head, bitterly accusing himself, because he had brought 
his brother to such a pass of sorrow. In this letter 
he throws great blame upon Hortensius whom together 
with Pompey he accuses of betraying him. What truth 
there may have been in this accusation as to Hortensius we 
have no means of saying. He couples Pompey in the same 
charge, and as to Pompey's treatment of him there can be 
no doubt. Pompey had been untrue to his promises because 
of his bond with Caesar. It is probable that Hortensius 
had failed to put himself forward on Cicero's behalf with 
that alacrity which the one advocate had expected from the 
other. Cicero and Hortensius were friends afterwards, 
but so were Cicero and Pompey. Cicero was forgiving by 
nature, and also by self-training. It did not suit his pur- 
poses to retain his enmities. Had there been a possibility 
of reconciling Antony to the cause of the " Optimates " after 
the Philippics, he would have availed himself of it. 

Cicero at one time intended to go to Buthrotum in Epirus 
where Atticus possessed a house and property; but he 
changed his purpose. He remained at Thessalonica till 



Ad Quin. Fra., 1, 3. 



HIS EXILE. 397 

November and then returned to Dyrrachium, having, all 
through his exile, been kept alive by tidings of steps taken 
for his recall. There seems very soon to have grown up 
a feeling in Rome that the city had disgraced itself by 
banishing such a man. And Csesar had gone to his pro- 
vinces. We can well imagine that when he had once left 
Rome, with all his purposes achieved, having so far quieted 
the tongue of the strong speaker who might have disturbed 
them, he would take no further steps to perpetuate the 
orator's banishment. Then Pompey and Clodius soon quar- 
relled. Pompey without Csesar to direct him found the 
arrogance of the patrician Tribune insupportable. We hear 
of wheels within wheels, and stories within stories in the 
drama of Roman history as it was played at this time. To- 
gether with Cicero it had been necessary to Csesar's projects 
that Cato also should be got out of Rome ;' and this had 
been managed by means of Clodius, who had a bill passed 
for the honourable employment of Cato on state purposes 
in Cyprus. Cato had found himself obliged to go. It 
was as though our prime minister had got parliamentary 
authority for sending a noisy member of the opposition 
to Asiatic Turkey for six months. There was an attempt 
or an alleged attempt of Clodius to have Pompe)' murdered. 
And there was street fighting, so that Pompey was be- 
sieged, or pretended to be besieged, in his own house. " We 
might as well seek to set a charivari to music as to write 
the history of this political witches' revel," says Mommsen, 
speaking of the state of Rome when Csesar was gone, Cicero 
banished and Pompey supposed to be in the ascendant. 1 



398 LIFE OF CICERO. 

There was at any rate quarrelling between Clodius and 
Pompey in the course of which Pompey was induced to 
consent to Cicero's return. Then Clodius took upon himself 
in revenge to turn against the Triumvirate altogether, and 
to repudiate even Caesar himself. But it was all a vain 
hurley-hurley, as to which Caesar when he heard the details 
in Gaul could only have felt how little was to be gained by 
maintaining his alliance with Pompey. He had achieved 
his purpose which he could not have done without the 
assistance of Crassus whose wealth, and of Pompey whose 
authority stood highest in Eome ; and now, having had his 
legions voted to him, and his provinces, and his prolonged 
term of years, he cared nothing for either of them. 

There is a little story which must be repeated, as against 
Cicero, in reference to this period of his exile because it has 
been told in all records of his life. Were I to omit the little 
story, it would seem as though I shunned the records which 
have been repeated as opposed to his credit. He had written 
some time back a squib in which he had been severe upon 
the elder Curio. So it is supposed ; but it matters little 
who was the object or what the subject. This had got wind 
in Rome, as such matters do sometimes, and he now feared 
that it would do him a mischief with the Curios and the 
friends of the Curios. The authorship was only matter 
of gossip. Could it not be denied ? " As it is written," 



1 The reader who wishes to understand with what anarchy the largest 
city in the world might still exist should turn to Chapter VIII. of Book V. 
of Momrn sen's history. 



HIS EXILE. 399 

says Cicero, "in a style inferior to that which is usual 
to me, can it not be shown not to have been mine ? " x Had 
Cicero possessed all the Christian virtues, as we hope that 
prelates and pastors possess them in this happy land, he 
would not have been betrayed into, at any rate, the expres- 
sion of such a wish. As it is, the enemies of Cicero 
must make the most of it. His friends, I think, will look 
upon it leniently. 

Continued efforts were made among Cicero's friends at 
Home to bring him back with which he was not altogether 
contented. He argues the matter repeatedly with Atticus, 
not always in the best temper. His friends at Borne were, 
he thought, doing the matter amiss. They would fail and he 
would still have to finish his days abroad. Atticus in his 
way to Epirus visits him at Dyrrachium, and he is sure that 
Atticus would not have left Rome but that the affair was 
hopeless. The reader of the correspondence is certainly led 
to the belief that Atticus must have been the most patient 
of friends; but he feels at the same time that Atticus 
would not have been patient had not Cicero been affectionate 
and true. The Consuls for the new year were Lentulus and 
Metellus Nepos. The former was Cicero's declared friend, 
and the other had already abandoned his enmity. Clodius 
was no longer Tribune, and Pompey had been brought 
to yield. The Senate were all but unanimous. But there 
was still life in Clodius and his party, and day dragged 
itself after day and month after month while Cicero still 

1 Ad Att. lib. iii. 12. 



400 LIFE OF CICERO. 

lingered at Dyrrachium waiting till a bill should have 
been passed by the people. Pompey, who was never 
whole-hearted in anything, had declared that a bill voted 
by the people would be necessary. The bill at last was 
voted, on the 14th of August, and Cicero who knew well 
what was being done at Rome, passed over from Dyrrachium 
to Brundisium on the same day, having been a year and four 
months absent from Eome. During the year, B.C. 57, up to 
the time of his return, he wrote but three letters that have 
come to us, two very short notes to Atticus, in the first of 
which he declares that he will come over on the authority of 
a decree of the Senate, without waiting for a law. In the 
second he falls again into despair declaring that everything 
is over. In the third he asks Metellus for his aid> telling 
the Consul that unless it be given soon the man for whom 
it is asked will no longer be living to receive it. Metellus 
did give the aid very cordially. 

It has been remarked that Cicero did nothing for literature 
during his banishment, either by writing essays or preparing 
speeches ; and it has been implied that the prostration of mind 
arising from his misfortunes must have been indeed complete 
when a man whose general life was made marvellous by its 
fecundity had been repressed into silence. It should, how- 
ever, be borne in mind that there could be no inducement 
for the writing of speeches when there was no opportunity 
of delivering them. As to his essays, including what we 
call his philosophy and his rhetoric, they who are familiar 
with his works will remember how apt he was in all that he 
produced to refer to the writings of others. He translates 



HIS EXILE. 401 

and lie quotes, and he makes constant use of the arguments 
and illustrations of those who have gone before him. He 
was a man who rarely worked without the use of a library. 
When I think how impossible it would be for me to repeat 
this oft-told tale of Cicero's life without a crowd of books 
within reach of my hand, I can easily understand why Cicero 
was silent at Thessalonica and Dyrrachium. It has been 
remarked also by a modern critic that we find " in the letters 
from exile a carelessness and inaccuracy of expression which 
contrasts strongly with the style of his happier days." I will 
not for a moment put my judgment in such a matter in 
opposition to that of Mr. Tyrrell, but I should myself have 
been inclined rather to say that the style of Cicero's letters 
varies constantly, being very different when used to Atticus, 
or to his brother, or to lighter friends such as Foetus and 
Trebatius ; and very different again when business of state 
was in hand, as are his letters to Decimus Brutus, Cassius, 
Brutus, and Plancus. To be correct in familiar letters 
is not to charm. A studied negligence is needed to make 
such work live to posterity, a grace of loose expression 
which may indeed have been made easy by use, but which 
is far from easy to the idle and unpractised writer. His 
sorrow, perhaps, required a style of its own. I have not 
felt my own untutored perception of the language to be 
offended by unfitting slovenliness in the expression of 
his grief. 



VOL. T. I) D 



APPENDICES TO VOLUME I. 



APPENDIX A, (to page 49). 

THE BATTLE OF THE EAGLE AND THE SERPENT. 

Homer, Iliad, lib. xii. 200 : 

O't p' eri fj.fpii.-/ipiov etpfffTa6res irapci rd^py. 
"Opvis yap <r<ptv einjA.06 trepri(refji.fvai p.e/.t,a.u>cnv, 
Aierbs v^/nreri)s eir' dpiffrepot, \abi> espytav, 
fcoij/rjeira Spd/covTa (pepcav ovv'X.fffffi ire\(apov, 
^T' affiralpov-ra.' KO.\ ovirta \rf6ero 
y&p aurbc txovra KO.T& ffrrjOos irapd. 
Oels OTrlffta' 6 S'dwA fOtv ^/ce %aju.a^6, 
TjVas o'Svvriffi, fiecry 5' evl /co^^oX' 
Avr&s 8e /c\07|ay TTTTO in/of}* di>efj.oio. 



Pope's translation of the passage. Book XII. 231 : 

" A signal omen stopp'd the passing host, 
The martial fury in their wonder lost. 
Jove's bird on sounding pinions beat the skies ; 
A bleeding serpent, of enormous size, 
His talons trussed ; alive, and curling round, 
He stung the bird, whose throat received the wound. 
Mad with the smart, he drops the fatal prey, 
In airy circles wings his painful way, 
Floats on the winds, and rends the heav'ns with cries. 
Amidst the host the fallen serpent lies. 
They, pale with terror, mark its spires unroll' d, 
And Jove's portent with beating hearts behold." 



406 APPENDIX A. 

Lord Derby's Iliad. Book XII. 236 : 

"For this I read the future, if indeed 
To us, about to cross, this sign from Heaven 
Was sent, to leftward of the astonished crowd ; 
A soaring eagle, bearing in his claws 
A dragon huge of size, of blood-red hue, 
Alive ; yet dropped him ere he reached his home, 
Nor to his nestlings bore the intended prey." 

Cicero's telling of the story : 

" Hie Jo vis altisoni subito pinnata satelles, 
Arboris e trunco serpentis saucia morsu, 
Ipsa feris subigit transfigens unguibus anguem 
Semianimum, et varia graviter cervice micantem. 
Quern se intorquentem lanians, rostroque cruentana, 
Jam satiata animum, jam duros ulta dolores, 
Abjicit efflantem, et laceratjim affligit in unda ; 
Seque obitu a solis nitidos convertit ad ortus." 

Voltaire's translation : 

"Tel on voit-cet oiseau qui porte le tonnerre, 
Blesse par un serpent e"lanc de la terre ; 
11 s'envole, il entraine au se"jour azure" 
L'ennemi tortueux dont il est entoure". 
Le sang tombe des airs. II d^chire, il deVore 
Le reptile acharne" qui le combat encore ; 
II le perce, il le tient sous ses ongles vainqueurs ; 
Par cent coups redouble's il venge ses douleurs. 
Le monstre, en expirant, se d^bat, se replie ; 
II exhale en poisons les restes de sa vie ; 
Et 1' aigle, tout sanglant, fier et victorieux, 
Le rejette en fureur, et plane au haut des cieux. 

Virgil's version, ^neid, Liber XI. 751: 

" Utque volans alte raptum quum fulva draconem 
Fert aquila, implicuitque pedes, atque unguibus haesit 
Saucius at serpens sinuosa volumina versat, 



APPENDIX A. 407 

Arrectisque horret squamis, et sibilat ore, 
Arduus insurgens. Ilia baud minus urget obunco 
Luctantem rostro ; simul aethera verberat alis." 

Dryden's translation from Virgil's 2Eneid, Book XI. : 
" So stoops the yellow eagle from on high, 

And bears a speckled serpent through the sky ; 

Fastening his crooked talons on the prey, 

The prisoner hisses through the liquid way ; 

Resists the royal hawk, and though opprest, 

She fights in volumes, and erects her crest. 

Turn'd to her fee, she stiffens every scale, 

And shoots her forky tongue, and whisks her threatening tail. 

Against the victor all defence is weak. 

Th' imperial bird still plies her with his beak : 

He tears her bowels, and her breast he gores ; 

Then claps his pinions, and securely soars." 

Pitt's translation. Book XI. : 
" As when th' imperial eagle soars on high, 

And bears some speckled serpent through the sky, 

While her sharp talons gripe the bleeding prey, 

In many a fold her curling volumes play ; 

Her starting brazen scales with horror rise ; 

The sanguine flames flash dreadful from her eyes. 

She writhes, and hisses at her foe, in vain, 

Who wins at ease the wide aerial plain ; 

With her strong hooky beak the captive plies, 

And bears the struggling prey, triumphant through the skies.'' 

Shelley's version of the battle. The Eevolt of Islam. Canto I. : 
"For in the air do I behold indeed 

An Eagle and a Serpent wreathed in fight ; 

And now relaxing its impetuous flight, 

Before the aerial rock on which I stood, 

The Eagle, hovering, wheeled to left and right, 

And hung with lingering wings over the flood. 
And startled with its yells the wide air's solitude. 



408 APPENDIX A. 

"A shaft of light upon its wings descended, 
And every golden feather gleamed therein 
Feather and scale inextricably blended. 
The Serpent's mailed and many-coloured skin 
Shone through the plumes ; its coils were twined within 
By many a swollen and knotted fold, and high 
And far, the neck receding lithe and thin, 
Sustained a crested head, which warily 
Shifted and glanced before the Eagle's steadfast eye. 

" Around, around, in ceaseless circles wheeling 
With clang of wings and scream, the Eagle sailed 
Incessantly, sometimes on high concealing 
Its lessening orbs, sometimes as if it failed, 
Drooped through the air ; and still it shrieked and wailed 
And casting back its eager head, with beak 
And talon unremittingly assailed 
The wreathed Serpent, who did ever seek 
Upon his enemy's heart a mortal wound to wreak. 

" What life, what power, was kindled and arose 
Within the sphere of that appalling fray ! 
For, from the encounter of those wond'rous foes 
A vapour like the sea's suspended spray 
Hung gathered ; in the void air, far away, 
Floated the shattered plumes ; bright scales did leap, 
Where'er the Eagle's talons made their way, 
Like sparks into the darkness ; as they sweep, 
Blood stains the snowy foam of the tumultuous deep. 

" Swift chances in that combat, many a check, 
And many a change, a dark and wild turmoil ; 
Sometimes the Snake around his enemy's neck 
Locked in stiff rings his adamantine coil, 
Until the Eagle, faint with pain and toil, 
Eemitted his strong flight, and near the sea 
Languidly fluttered, hopeless so to foil 
His adversary, who then reared on high 
His red and burning crest, radiant with victory. 



APPENDIX A. 409 

"Then on the white edge of the bursting surge, 
Where .they had sunk together, would the Snake 
Relax his suffocating grasp, and scourge 
The wind with his wild writhings ; for to break 
That chain of torment, the vast bird would shake 
The strength of his unconquerable wings 
As in despair, and with his sinewy neck 
Dissolve in sudden shock those linked rings, 
Then soar as swift as smoke from a volcano springs. 

" Wile baffled wile, and strength encountered strength, 

Thus long, but unprevailing : the event 

Of that portentous fight appeared at length : 

Until the lamp of day was almost spent 

It had endured, when lifeless, stark and rent, 

Hung high that mighty Serpent, and at last 

Fell to the sea, while o'er the continent, 

With clang of wings and scream the Eagle past, 
Heavily borne away on the exhausted blast." 

I have repudiated the adverse criticism on Cicero's poetry which has 
been attributed to Juvenal ; but, having done so, am bound in fairness 
to state that which is to be found elsewhere in any later author of 
renown as a classic. In the treatise " De Oratoribus " attributed to 
Tacitus, and generally published with his works by him, a treatise com- 
menced probably in the last year of Vespasian's reign, and completed 
only in that of Domitian, Cicero as a poet is spoken of with a 
severity of censure which the writer presumes to have been his 
recognised desert. " For Caesar," he says, " and Brutus made verses, 
and sent them to the public libraries, not better indeed than Cicero, 
but with less of general misfortune, because only a few people knew 
that they had done so." This must be taken for what it is worth. The 
treatise, let it have been written by whom it might, is full of wit and 
is charming in language and feeling. It is a dialogue after the manner 
of Cicero himself, and is the work of an author well conversant with 
the subjects in hand. But it is, no doubt, the case that these two un- 
fortunate lines which have been quoted became notorious in Rome 
when there was a party anxious to put down Cicero. 



APPENDIX B. (See page 122.) 

FROM THE BEUTUS CA. XCII. AND XCIII. 

" THEKE were at that time two orators, Cotta and Hortensius, who 
towered above all others, and incited me to rival them. The first 
spoke with self-restraint and moderation, clearly and easily, expressing 
his ideas in appropriate language. The other was magnificent and 
fierce ; not such as you remember him, Brutus, when he was already 
failing, but full of life both in his words and actions. I then resolved 
that Hortensius should, of the two, be my model, because I felt 
myself like to him in his energy, and nearer to him in his age. I 
observed that when they were in the same causes, those for Canuleius 
and for our Consular Dolabella, though Cotta was the senior counsel, 
Hortensius took the lead. A large gathering of men and the noise of 
the Forum require that a speaker shall be quick, on fire, active, and 
loud. The year after my return from Asia I undertook the charge 
of causes that were honourable, and in that year I was seeking to 
be Qusestor, Cotta to be Consul, and Hortensius to be Prsetor. Then 
for a year I served as Quaestor in Sicily. Cotta after his Consulship 
went as Governor into Gaul ; and then Hortensius was, and was con- 
sidered to be, first at the bar. When I had been back from Sicily 
twelve months I began to find that whatever there was within me 
had come to such perfection as it might attain. I feel that I am 
speaking too much of myself ; but it is done not that you may be 
made to own my ability or my eloquence, which is far from my 
thoughts, but that you may see how great was my toil and my 
industry. Then, when I had been employed for nearly five years in 



APPENDIX B. 411 

many cases and was accounted a leading advocate, I specially con- 
cerned myself in conducting the great cause on behalf of Sicily, the 
trial of Verres, when I and Hortensius were ^dile and Consul 
designate. 

" But as this discussion of ours is intended to produce not a mere 
catalogue of orators but some true lessons of oratory, let us see 
what there was in Hortensius that we must blame. When he was 
out of his Consulship, seeing that among past Consuls there was no 
one on a par with him, and thinking but little of those who were 
below consular rank, he became idle in his work to which from 
boyhood he had devoted himself, and chose to live in the midst of 
his wealth, as he thought a happier life, certainly an easier one. 
The first two or three years took off something from him. As the 
gradual decay of a picture will be observed by the true critic, 
though it be not seen by the world at large, so was it with his 
decay. From day to day he became more and more unlike his old 
self, failing in all branches of oratory, but specially in the rapidity 
and continuity of his words. But for myself I never rested, struggling 
always to increase whatever power there was in me, by practice of 
every kind, especially in writing. Passing over many things in 
the year after I was ^3Edile, I will come to that in which I was 
elected first Prsetor, to the great delight of the public generally ; 
for I had gained the good will of men, partly by my attention to 
the causes which I undertook, but specially by a certain new strain 
of eloquence, as excellent as it was uncommon, with which I spoke. " 
Cicero when he wrote this of himself was an old man, sixty-two 
years of age, broken-hearted for the loss of his daughter, to whom 
it was, no doubt allowed among his friends to praise himself with 
the garrulity of years because it was understood that he had been 
unequalled in the matter of which he was speaking. It is easy for 
us to laugh at his boastings ; but the account which he gives of his 
early life and of the manner in which he attained the excellence for 
which he had been celebrated, is of value. 



APPENDIX C. (See page 173.) 

11 THERE was still prevailing in Rome at this time a strong feeling 
that a growing taste for these ornamental luxuries was injurious to 
the Republic, undermining its simplicity and weakening its stability. 
We are well aware that its simplicity was a thing of the past, and 
its stability gone. The existence of a Verres is proof that it was 
so ; but still the feeling remained, and did remain long after the 
time of Cicero, that these beautiful things were a sign of decay. 
We know how conquering Rome caught the taste for them from 
conquered Greece. " Grsecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes 
Intulit agresti Latio." 1 Cicero submitted himself to this new 
captivity readily, but with apologies, as shown in his pretended 
abnegation of all knowledge of art. Two years afterwards in a 
letter to Atticus, giving him instructions as to the purchase of 
statues, he declares that he is altogether carried away by his 
longing for such things, but not without a feeling of shame. "Nam 
in eo genere sic studio efferimur ut abs te adjuvandi, ab aliis propre 
reprehendi simus." 2 "Though you will help me, others I know 
will blame me." The same feeling is expressed beautifully, but no 
doubt falsely, by Horace when he declares, as Cicero had done, his 
own indifference to such delicacies ; 

'' Gems, marbles, ivory, Tuscan statuettes, 
Pictures, gold plate, Gsetulian coverlets, 
There are who have not. One there is, I trow, 
Who cares not greatly if he has or no." 3 

1 Horace, Eps. lib. ii. 1. 2 At Att. lib. i. 8. 

3 Horace, Eps. lib. ii. 11. The translation is Conington's. 



APPENDIX C. 413 

Many years afterwards in the time of Tiberius, Velleius Paterculus 
says the same when he is telling how ignorant Mummius was of 
sculpture, who, when he had taken Corinth, threatened those who had 
to carry away the statues from their places, that if they broke any 
they should be made to replace them. " You will not doubt, however," 
the historian says, " that it would have been better for the Republic 
to remain ignorant of these Corinthian gems than to understand them 
as well as it does now. That rudeness befitted the public honour better 
than our present taste.'' 1 Cicero understood well enough with one side 
of his intelligence, that as the longing for these things grew in the 
minds of rich men, as the leading Romans of the day became devoted 
to luxury rather than to work, the ground on which the Republic 
stood must be sapped. A Marcellus or a Scipio had taken glory in 
ornamenting the city. A Verres or even an Hortensius, even a 
Cicero, was desirous of beautiful things for his own house. But still, 
with the other side of his intelligence, he saw that a perfect citizen 
might appreciate art and yet do his duty ; might appreciate art, and 
yet save his country. What he did not see was, that the temptations 
of luxury, though compatible with virtue, are antagonistic to it. The 
camel may be made to go through the eye of the needle ; but it is 
difficult. 

1 Veil. Pat. lib. i. xiii. 



APPENDIX D. (See page 212.) 



PEG LEGE MANILIA CA. X. AND XVI. 



" UTINAM, Quirites, virorum f or- 
tium, atque innocentium copiam 
tantam haberetis, ut hsec vobis 
deliberatio difficilis esset, quem- 
nam potissimum tantis rebus ac 
tanto bello praeficiendum putare- 
tis ! Nunc vero cum sit unus 
Cn. Pompeius, qui non modo 
eorum hominum, qui nunc sunt, 
gloriam, sed etiam antiquitatis 
memoriam virtute superarit ; 
quae res est, quae eujnsquam 
animum in hac causa dubium 
facere posset? Ego enim sic 
existimo, in summo imperatore 
quatuor has res inesse oportere, 
scientiam rei militaris, virtutem, 
auctoritatem, felicitatem. Quis 
igitur hoc homine scientior 
umquam aut fuit, aut esse de- 
buit ? qui e ludo, atque pueri- 
tiae disciplina, bello maximo 
atque acerrimis hostibus, ad 
patris exercitum atque in 
militiae disciplinam profectus 
est ? qui extrema pueritia ' miles 



"I could wish, Quirites, that 
there was open to you so large 
a choice of men capable at the 
same time, and honest, that you 
might find a difficulty in decid- 
ing who might best be selected 
for command in a war so mo- 
mentous as this. But now when 
Pompey alone has surpassed in 
achievements, not only those 
who live, but all of whom we 
have read in history, what is 
there to make any one hesitate 
in the matter? In my opinion 
there are four qualities to be 
desired in a general, military 
knowledge, valour, authority 
and fortune. But whoever was 
or was ever wanted to be more 
skilled than this man, who, taken 
fresh from school and from the 
lessons of his boyhood, was sub- 
jected to the discipline of his 
father's army during one of our 
severest wars, when our enemies 
were strong against us ? In his 



APPENDIX D. 



415 



fuit surami imperatoris ? in- 
eunte adolescentia maximi ipse 
exercitus imperator ? qui saepius 
cum hoste conflixit, quam quis- 
quam cuin inimico concertavit? 
plura bell a gessit, quam caeteri 
legerunt ? plures provincias con- 
fecit, quam alii concupiverunt ? 
cujus adolescentia ad scientiam 
rei militaris non alienis prse- 
ceptis, sed suis imperiis ; non 
offensionibus belli, sed victoriis ; 
non stipendiis, sed triumphis est 
eradita? Quod denique genus 
belli esse potest, in quo ilium 
non exercuerit fortuna reipub- 
licse ? Civile ; Africanum ; Trans- 
alpinum; Hispaniense ; mistum 
ex civitatibus atque ex bellico- 
sissimis nationibus servile ; 
navale bellum, varia et diversa 
genera, et bellorum et hostium, 
non solum gesta ab hoc uno, 
sed etiam confecta, nullam rem 
esse declarant, in usu militari 
positam, quae hujus viri scien- 
tiam fugere posset. 



earliest youth he served under 
our greatest general. As years 
went on he was himself in 
command over a large army. 
He has been more frequent in 
fighting than others in quarrel- 
ling. Few have read of so 
many battles as he has fought. 
He has conquered more Provinces 
than others have desired to pil- 
lage. He learned the art of war 
not from written precepts but by 
his own practice, not from re- 
verses but from victories. He 
does not count his campaigns, 
but the triumphs which he has 
won. What nature of warfare 
is there in which the Republic 
has not used his services ? 
Think of our Civil war 1 of our 
African war 2 of our war on the 
other side of the Alps 3 of our 
Spanish wars 4 of our Servile 
war 5 which was carried on by 
the energies of so many mighty 
people, and this Maritime war. 
How many enemies had we, 



1 Civile ; when SuUa, with Pompey under him, was fighting with young 
Marius and Cinna. 

2 "Africanum." "When he had fought with Domitius, the son-in-law of 

Cinna and with Hiarbas. 

3 Transalpinum. During his march through Gaul into Spain. 

4 " Hispaniense." In which he conquered Sertorius. 

s Servile ; "the war with Spartacus, with the slaves and gladiators. 
6 " Navale Bellum ; " the war with the pirates. 



416 



APPENDIX D. 



" Quare curn et bellum ita ne- 
cessarium sit, ut negligi non 
possit ; ita magnum, ut accura- 
tissime sit administrandum ; et 
cum ei imperatorem prseficere 
possitis, in quo sit eximia belli 
scientia, singularis virtus, cla- 
rissima auctoritas, egregia for- 
tuna ; dubitabitis, Quirites, quin 
hoc tantum boni, quod vobis a 
diis immortalibus oblatum et 
datum est, in rempublicam con- 
servandam atque amplificandam 
conferatis ? " 



how various were our contests ! 
They were all not only carried 
through by this one man, but 
brought to an end so gloriously 
as to show that there is nothing 
in the practice of warfare which 
has escaped his knowledge. 

" Seeing therefore that this 
war cannot be neglected ; that 
its importance demands the ut- 
most care in its adminstration, 
that it requires a General in 
whom should be found sure 
military science, manifest valour, 
conspicuous authority, and pre- 
eminent good fortune, do you 
doubt, Quirites, but that you 
should use the great blessing 
which the gods have given you 
for the preservation and glory 
of the Republic?" 



On reading, however, the piece over again I almost doubt whether 
there be any passages in it which should be selected as superior 
to others. 



APPENDIX E. (See page 323.) 

LUCAN, LIB. I. 



" male Concordes, nimiaque cupi- 

dine cseci, 
Quid miscere juvat vires orbem- 

que tenere ' 
In'medio." 



" men so ill-fitted to agree, 
men blind with greed, of what 
service can it be that you should 
join your powers, and possess the 
world between you ? " 



"Temporis angusti mansit con- 

cordia discors, 
Paxque fuit non sponte ducum. 

Nam sola f nturi 
Crassus erat belli medius mora. 

Qualiter undas 
. Qui secat, et geminum gracilis 

mare separat isthmos, 
Nee patitur conferre f return ; si 

terra recedat, 
Ionium ^Egaeo frangat mare. 

Sic, ubi sseva 
Arma ducum dirimens, miser- 

ando f unere Crassus 
Assyrias latio maculavit san- 
guine Can-as." 



" For a short time the ill-sorted 
compact lasted, and there was a 
peace which each of them ab- 
horred. Crassus alone stood' be- 
tween the others, hindering for a 
while the coming war, as ah 
isthmus separates two waters and 
forbids sea to meet sea. If the 
morsel of land gives way, the 
Ionian waves and the ^Egean dash 
themselves in foam against each 
other. So was it with the arms 
of the two chiefs when Crassus 
fell, and drenched the Assyrian 
Carrae with Roman blood." 



"Dividitur ferro regnum; popu- 

lique potentis, 
VOL. I. 



"Then the possession of the 
Empire was put to the arbitration 
E E 



418 



APPENDIX E. 



Quae mare, quae terras, quae totum 

possidet orbem, 
Non cepit fortuna duos." 



of the sword. The fortunes of 
a people which possessed sea and 
earth and the whole world were 
not sufficient for two men." 



"Tu nova ne veteres obscurent 

acta triumphos, 
Et victis cedat piratica laurea 

Gallis, 
Magne, times ; te jam series, 

ususque laborum 
Erigit, impatiensque loci for- 
tuna secundi. 
Nee quemquam jam f erre potest 

Caesarve priorem, 
Pompeiusve parem. Quis jus- 

tius induit arma, 
Scire nefas; magno se judice 

quisque tuetur ; 
Victrix causa deis placuit sed 

victa Catoni. l 
Nee coiere pares ; alter ver- 

gentibus annis 
In senium, longoque togse tran- 

quillior usu 
Dedidicit jam pace ducem ; 

famseque petitor 
Multa dare in vulgas ; totus 

popularibus auris 
Impelli, plausuque sui gaudere 

theatri : 



" You, Magnus, you, Pompeius, 
fear lest newer deeds than yours 
should make dull your old tri- 
umphs, and the scattering of the 
pirates should be as nothing to 
the conquering of Gaul. The 
practice of many wars has so 
exalted you, Caesar, that you 
cannot put up with a second 
place. Cassar will endure no 
superior ; but Pompey will have 
no equal. Whose cause was the 
better the poet dares not inquire ! 
Each will have his own advocate 
in history. On the side of .the 
conqueror the gods ranged them- 
selves. Cato has chosen to follow 
the conquered." 

"But surely the men were not 
equal. The one in declining years, 
who had already changed his arms 
for the garb of peace, had un- 
learned the General in the States- 
man, had become wont to talk 
to the people, to devote himself 
to harangues ; and to love the 
applause of his own theatre. He 



1 For the full understanding of this oft-quoted line the reader should make 
himself acquainted with Cato's march across Libya after the death of 
Pompey, as told by Lucan in his 9th book. 



APPENDIX E. 



419 



Nee reparare novas vires, mul- 

tumque priori 
Credere fortunse. Stat magni 

nominis umbra.". 



has not cared to renew his strength 
trusting to his old fortune. There 
remains of him but the shadow 
of his great name." 



"Sed non in Caesare 

tantum 
Nomen erat, nee fama ducis ; sed 

nescia virtus 
Stare loco; solusque pudor non 

vincere bello. 
Acer et indomitus ; quo spes, 

quoque ira vocasset, 
Ferre manum, et nunquam teme- 

rando parcere ferro ; 
Successus urgere suos ; instare 

favori 
Numinis." 

LUCAN, lib. 1. 



"The name of Caesar does not 
loom so large ; nor is his character 
as a general so high. But there is a 
spirit which can content itself with 
no achievements ; there is but one 
feeling of shame, that of not 
conquering ; a man determined, 
not to be controlled, taking his 
arms wherever lust of conquest 
or anger may call him ; a man 
never sparing the s\vord, creat- 
ing all things from his own good 
fortune, trusting always to the 
favours of the gods. 



END OF VOL. I. 



LONDON : 
E. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, 

.BREAD STREET HILL. 



GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 



3 3125 00976 4875